Angeline
by All My Love. M
Summary: At worst, she was dangerous. At best, full on nuclear. And no one could stop her from seeking revenge on Hydra, for taking the man she loved. eventual Steve/ OC , previously Logan/ OC (pre CATWS, X-Men Crossover, and mentions of Superman but only mockingly and mostly through Tony) No lemons!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi everyone! Hope this doens't send you into a tizzy but I've been doing re-writes of all three of my stories. I just felt like they needed more substance and grammar editing. It's all very much a work in progress but here I am, re-uploading chapters so I apologize in advance for all the notifications you must be getting. As always, I own nothing here but Angeline. Please R &R to let me know what you think! **

There was a loud crashing sound, followed by a scream—decidedly feminine and full of anguish. A few men shouted in response, rushing to remedy the issue, and what followed was even more crashing before the firing of bullets—their ignition the only source of light besides the humming of the computer screens in the completely dark room. Eventually, the screaming stopped, turning instead into broken whines that sounded much like a dying animal.

The commotion happening before him was enough to make Dr. Walters sick, not that he hadn't felt nauseous, paranoid, and scared the whole entire time he had been "brought" to this place. Watching the men surround the patient and subdue her so violently was enough to make any humane person severely uncomfortable.

"We need to up the dosage" Dr. Walters had his notepad before him, glasses resting slightly askew, and his eyes almost manic from exhaustion as he reported to his boss. Hydra had taken him, in the middle of the night, from his lab whilst he was doing research. Supposedly, Christopher Walters was replacing the last doctor who had an unfortunate run in with the patient just days prior to his arrival.

Alexander Pierce was displeased with the news, as was obvious by the scowl on his face, "The dosage was increased just last week. Are you telling me that after all these years the patient is becoming resistant to it?"

The news was unsettling to Pierce. The patient was dangerous at worst—and if at full power and completely healed, almost nuclear. The fact that the patient could possibly be growing a resistance to the drugs Hydra used to subdue it could mean the end of all their work—or the end of Hydra. It was obvious how resilient and powerful the patient was, which is why they were using its blood, tissue, and spinal samples in order to try and recreate the Super Soldier Serum. However, if the usual mix of cocktails wasn't going to subdue the patient, and they had to increasingly up the dosage, soon enough they were going to have to find a way to completely incapacitate her before she ended them in revenge.

"It might have something to do with the fact that the patient was able to briefly reach a source of sunlight during the last attempted escape—the ultraviolet rays might have powered her cells back up again, making the serum less effective," Dr. Walters stuttered nervously, afraid to displease Pierce any further. None of his tastings had come up with any results so far, Erskine's formula was still so far away from reach.

Sighing, Pierce folded his arms and turned to Agent Sitwell, who was standing behind him. "Get Rumlow to administer another set now—and let him know about the updated schedule. Have the Asset there during the administration, and let Rumlow know that if the patient tries to fight back again, I want the Asset to neutralize it once again."

Agent Sitwell, having gotten used to the procedures needed to subdue the patient, was unfazed at what was going on around him. "Will we need to put the patient back in the Chamber?"

The Chamber, which was of Hydra invention, was a metal room meant to suck out ultraviolet radiation from anything within it, it also held negative energy and thus didn't allow the patient to "recharge" herself at all. It was what Hydra had used initially to capture and subdue the patient, followed by a mix of cocktails that would keep her incapacitated and unable to absorb anything, and this is also where they always brought her up back to if one of the escape attempts ever ended up with the patient getting exposure to sunlight—which unfortunately was so powerful, it allowed the patient's cells to bypass and work through all the drugs that they had dosed her with.

Pierce directed his attention to Dr. Walters for the answer to Sitwell's question. "Yes, we'll need to exhaust the current UV rays that are powering the patient if we want any work to be done further,"

Nodding in understanding, Agent Sitwell turn and left swiftly without anymore questions.

Alexander Pierce watched the still form of the patient, that was shrouded in darkness save for the light of the computer screens. She had been a lot of trouble, always had been. The escape attempts had started decreasing though, over the last decade and Pierce was honestly surprised she even attempted this one, having thought that her spirit was finally broken.

"The next time you go in to check on the patient, I want a full blood and spinal work done again. The only way we can even hope to replicate or surpass Erksine's work is through the patient and so far everyone else has failed. Don't disappoint me Dr. Walters," Pierce commanded imperiously, causing Dr. Walters to nod nervously before scurrying away—notebook clutched closely to his chest.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Pierce gave an exasperated sigh. It was tiring to be surrounded by incompetent morons.

…

She fought against the restraints that were binding her, desperate to reach the sunlight again. The bullets that the Hydra agents had rained down upon her were already healed, given the small amount of light she had been able to reach and the residual energies around her. However, it wasn't enough to get her back to her full form.

Her throat hurt, from the screaming, mostly from pain, partly from anger. It had only gotten worse as they dragged her closer and closer to the Chamber. In that moment she knew above all else that any attempt at escape for that day, that week, or even that month really would be futile. Spending time in the Chamber always managed to put her in a semi-comatose state.

Opening her eyes slightly, she watched as Agent Rumlow approached her, a box of syringes in one hand and a gun in another. Behind him stood the Asset, watching all the happenings before him stoically.

When the Asset first got there, she had hoped he would be an ally. He had enough fight in him…for the first few months at least. But whatever experiments that Hydra conducted on him, whatever it was that they did to his mind, had slowly started to erase the person the Asset once was. She had watched it happen, pityingly, as initially they had tried to make her pry into his mind. But she had refused, and no amount of torture or subjugation would make her willingly work for Hydra in any way.

It had cost her, but it was worth it, knowing that she wasn't hurting an innocent as part of Hydra's games. Unfortunately, things didn't end so well for the Asset. And there he stood now, before her, a shell of the man he once was.

 _James Buchanan Barnes._

That's the name he had managed to give her, once, when they attempted to escape together during the earlier part of his capture. She briefly remembered it, having been trapped in the Chamber for days and in a near unconscious state. They had placed him directly in the chair afterwards, attempted to wipe his mind. She remembered the earlier days, when Hydra had attempted to do the same with her, but found that placing her too close, or really just strapping her into something, that was an electricity source or was powered by electricity was not a smart move. Twenty agents had died that day, it was a glorious sight to behold and she had laughed the whole way they had dragged her to the Chamber.

The Chamber, what a unique piece of technology. No visible sources of energy nor any that she could sense because it was what the Doctor had called "anti-energy" and thus negated everything in it. It also absorbed all the UV radiation, or any radiation really, out of the place. The patient couldn't help be simultaneously fascinated and disgusted with the machine. It was like they had been watching her, for years, and designed it especially to contain her.

As Agent Rumlow injected her with the cocktail of drugs that Hydra was prone to use every day to keep her subdued, she let her eyes fall close. No point in fighting more now. Best to conserve as much energy as possible, as little there was left in her body.

…

"What's the ETA?" Steve Rogers asked, decked completely in his Captain America suit, walked up to the pit where Agent Clint Barton was currently piloting the quintjet.

"We'll be landing in 10 minutes, 5 miles out from the Hydra Base," Barton responded, flicking different controls on the panel before him in preparation to land. It would have to be as slow and quiet as possible in order not to alert anyone nearby that they were approaching.

"Stark and Thor are already en route," Agent Natasha Romanov informed them—looking up from her StarkPad, "We'll need the Big Guy to make an appearance," glancing at Dr. Banner, Romanov shot an apologetic smile, "Intel suggests they've got tighter security here than in any other base we've encountered. Whatever Hydra is hiding in there, it's important,"

Doctor Bruce Banner nodded solemnly, knowing what was being asked of him and liking it were two very different things. However, over the past few months of working with the Avengers in order to take down Hydra bases had helped him at the very least mentally cope with the fact that the Other Guy was in him and he was there to stay. However, asking him to turn into the Other Guy—not one of his favorite past times. But at least working for SHIELD he was doing something good, and not breaking Harlem in half.

Picking up his shield, Steve strapped himself into his seat and prepared for landing. Even now the super soldier was still a little wary when it came to flying, or just being in a plane in general. His last few experiences on anything that flew, be it quintjet or helicarrier, were not fond memories for the Captain to recall. Moreover, every time the quintjet landed, Steve would brace himself as if preparing for a crash and once they were safely on the ground, the Captain would quickly thank God before moving forward with the mission.

Once the quintjet successfully landed, everyone hopped out and stepped into the woods before them. Clint and Natasha both checked over their weapons. Hawkeye paying special attention to his bow, to make sure that the string was still taught and that his arrows were all armed. Natasha checked the chamber of each gun and made sure they were all fully loaded, before securing them into the holsters on her waist. Steve scanned the whole area around them, scouting for potential threats, his eyes resting on Bruce for a moment as the doctor prepared to let the Other Guy out.

Months of working together as a team, they all basically had a routine down at this point. If Stark and Thor had been on the quintjet with them, and not meeting them at the base, Thor would have been standing next to Steve, twirling his hammer carelessly as he to scanned the area. Tony would be talking to Jarvis, asking the AI to check on satellites while the billionaire genius ran a systems diagnostic on his suit. It was all very mechanical, and efficient, the way they worked now. It was almost as if they were an actual team, and Steve shook his head incredulously at the thought. The sentiment was not something he would have ever dreamed on contemplating just months prior when Fury had first assembled them all together.

"Looks like the bands all here" Stark called impishly as he and Thor landed in front of the team, "Well Capiscle, call it out,"

Steve rolled his eyes at the nickname, but the super soldier had long given up trying to reprimand Tony for it. Obviously the man would never change his ways, or listen unless necessary, and Steve was coming to terms with it.

"Stark" Steve nodded in greeting, "You, Thor and Bruce will go from the front. Make as much noise as possible and draw everyone out. Barton, get as much elevation as you can and keep an eye out. You know where to put the detonators and let us know when it's going to blow. Romanov and I will go in and do recon, Hydra has to be hiding something in there. The place is too well-guarded for there not to be something,"

Everyone nodded in assent, `the plan sounding good in their minds and not anything different from what they usually did. It was a good strategy and luckily, the Hydra operatives that were there were usually too busy scrambling because of all the noise the Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor would make to pay much attention to anything else, let alone catch on to what they were doing. Once they all got to the base, the sight of the Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man had all the Hydra agents rushing out. All the attention was so focused on the three of them that Steve and Natasha only had to subdue a handful of agents before making their way into the compound. From high above, in a large oak tree, Clint was firing arrows strategically at different sectors of the compound—placing detonators wherever he hit, the countdown clock perched before him and already beeping away.

Once inside, Natasha and Steve maneuvered their way through the stone hall of the compound, and went in two separate directions. Steve was careful, looking over his shoulder and around corners in order to make sure he wouldn't be ambushed—always prepared. Natasha was, less careful. The Black Widow strutted down the halls and engaged and neutralized any Hydra operatives that approached her—not intimidated whatsoever. The woman was a trained assassin and she didn't have any qualms of making full use of her training.

Running down the halls, Steve passed several empty cells, and when a few Hydra members appeared before him, Captain America easily subdued them. There weren't that many to begin with, considering that most of them had rushed outside once all the commotion started up. However, as he approached the end of the hall he was currently running down, Steve noticed that more and more Hydra agents began appearing—which definitely meant he was getting closer to something of value. Using his shield, Steve blocked the oncoming rain of bullets headed his way before subduing yet another group of Hydra agents. Not usually one to use firearms, Steve made sure to just punch or block any one in his way with his shield. Upon inspecting each room, the Captain found nothing except a set of computers at the end of the hall.

Plugging in the flash drive like how Stark taught him to, Steve pressed enter and waited as Jarvis did his work on the system. Soon, whatever files Hydra had hidden in this base would be uploaded onto Stark's main server. While waiting for the AI to infiltrate the system and retrieve the necessary information, Steve continued to look around, something in his gut telling him there was definitely more to be found. A flash of white light caught his eye and Steve turned abruptly to go toward a door with a small glass window.

Inside, Steve spotted an old man in a white lab coat scrambling around and throwing a bunch of papers into a fire that was burning in a trash can. The man was moving around frantically, looking as if he was trying to destroy evidence. Behind the running man was a person, chained to the floor and looking close to death. Peering closer to the glass, Steve realized it was a woman, who looked severely malnourished and near death. Obviously, Hydra had been holding someone prisoner in the base, which meant they could be with SHIELD or a potential ally. With that thought in mind, Steve broke the bolted door open.

The man in the white lab coat stopped running and turned to look at him. He looked momentarily stunned, before running up to Steve urgently, "Oh my god, Captain America! You have to help—they kidnapped me in the middle of the night! You need to get me out of here!"

"Sir, please, breathe. Who are you? And who is that behind you?" Steve indicated to the woman who was still laying unconscious on the floor, despite the commotion.

The man pushed his glasses further up his face, "Captain, my name is Dr. Walters. That woman…they never gave me her name, we've always just referred to her as the patient…"

Dr. Walters began fidgeting again, no doubt stressed and anxious from his time as a Hydra captive.

"It's fine," Steve placated the man, placing a hand on his shoulder, "let me grab her and we'll be on our way out." Making his way toward the woman, Steve picked up one of the chains that was attached to her leg.

"I don't think you want to do that—they didn't give me much information but I know she's dangerous and she has something that Hydra wants," Dr. Walters warned, taking a step back as Steve broke one of the chains.

"Well if Hydra wants her, we need to make sure they don't get her—no matter how 'dangerous' she could be," Steve reasoned, breaking off the other chains and swinging the woman up into his arms.

The super soldier was surprised by how light the woman was. Despite having super strength, most of the time people were a lot heavier than the woman that was currently in his arms.

"Follow me, I'll get you out of here," shield now strapped firmly to his back, mysterious prisoner woman cradled securely in his arms, and kidnapped doctor scrambling behind him, Steve attempted to make his way out of the compound.

…

Loud noises started making their way down the hall, people were shouting and Steve knew that Hydra agents were making their way toward them. The super soldier quickly made his way back to the room with the computers and pulled the flash drive out, hoping that Jarvis had done all the work he needed to do. Securing the flash drive onto his person, Steve motioned for the doctor to follow him.

Making their way down the hall, a rainstorm of bullets was fired at the party. Steve pushed the doctor around the corner with his body, sending all three of them flying back.

"Stay here," Steve ordered the doctor, before placing the woman down on the floor and pulling his shield out from his back.

In the hall, Steve was confronted with a large group of Hydra agents, all of them armed with guns that were trained steadily at him. Bullets were fired in rapid succession and Steve used his shield to once again block them. Once in the thick of it all, he began knocking Hydra agents out, throwing his shield and running straight into the fray. The Captain usually only needed at least 2 punches to solidly knock the consciousness out of anyone who came at him. When all the agents before him had been neutralized, Steve turned around quickly at the sound of more bullets.

Picking up his shield and running around the corner quickly, Steve found that Doctor Walters had been shot, already lying in a pool of his own blood. Bending down to check for a pulse, Steve cursed under his breath when he found none. Making a run toward the Hydra agents, Steve intercepted them before they could approach the woman, who was still lying on the ground. Throwing his shield out again, Steve knocked out the front half of the group of agents, before working his way through the second half. It was quick and efficient, Steve wasted no time. When they were all down, Steve placed his shield back on his back and picked the woman up in his arms. Looking around, Steve tried to reminder the way in which he had made his way in.

"Jarvis I need an exit route," the Captain was already rounding the corner, trying to remember from which hallway he had came from.

"Already on it Captain," came Jarvis's reply over the comm units, "If you would take an immediate right, the walkway you will be going down will lead you to the back exit,"

"Got it, thanks Jarvis," maneuvering his way down the halls, Steve quickly made his way out. "Agent Romanoff, I'm almost out—what's your 20?"

No answer came for a moment. And Steve waited anxiously for the Black Widow to respond despite knowing that she could take care of herself. After a brief pause, and a moment of static, Natasha's voice filtered through, "Sorry, was busy for a moment. On my way out now,"

"Rogers, Romanoff," Barton's voice crackled through, "We've got five minutes before the place is set to blow,"

"Copy," the two responded automatically.

"Agent Barton, I need the med team at the helicarrier on standby—I've got a woman with me and she's unconscious and severely injured,"

"Wow old timer, middle of a mission and you've managed to pick up a woman—what did they teach guys back in the 40s?" Star's voice came clearly through the comm line and Steve rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Not an appropriate time Stark," skidding to a halt, Steve heard running foot steps approach him, and the Captain prepared to pull his shield out.

Rounding the corner, Natasha also halted as she spotted Steve. The two made eye contract for a brief moment, Natasha's gaze falling onto the woman in Steve's arms. The Black Widow sent Steve a look he couldn't interpret before the two started running toward the exit together.

"Two minutes everyone, we've got to start heading out—the explosion will have a mile-wide radius and none of us can be anywhere near it when it goes," Clint informed everyone further, unlatching himself from his perch before sliding down the tree. "I'm gonna need a ride out,"

"Friend Barton, the Iron Man is coming to retrieve you. I will leave once Friend Natasha and the Captain are out," Thor swung out his hammer at the tank that was headed his way, breaking the big machine in half—the casual tone of his voice never changing.

"I'll get the Hulk," Natasha started making her way toward the big green man, waiting expectantly for him to pick her up. There was no way she could run as fast as Captain America back to the quintjet and Bruce as his regular self wouldn't be able to do it either. She needed a fast ride and a gamma radiation charged, big, green man would have to do.

The Hulk glanced down at Natasha, before holding out his hand and waiting for her to step on. After months of training and working together on missions since that day in New York, the Hulk seemed less overall angry and more cognizant of his actions and who the real enemy was. And of all the Avengers, it was Natasha who he responded to best and it was Natasha who could calm him down in the end. Grabbing a hold of her, the Hulk placed Natasha onto his shoulder before turning and breaking into a full run back to the quintjet.

Thor briefly glanced around, searching the immediate area around him in order to make sure that all the Avengers were out of the one-mile radius of the compound. Steve was already running back, the woman in his arms. Meanwhile, Tony had taken Clint and the two were already flying back. Natasha left with the Hulk and that meant everyone was out of the way. With one final nod to himself, Thor raised his hammer into the air and with a crackle of lightning, followed by the sound of rumbling thunder—the god brought himself back to the quintjet.

As Steve was running, the woman in his arms gasped and her eyes fluttered open. Shockingly blue eyes met his, and the hands that were previously hanging loosely were now wrapped firmly around his neck. The woman's brown hair, long and tangled from what Steve thought was probably months of being captive, flowed back as the wind pushed against the pair as the Captain ran. Digging her nails into Steve's neck, and pressing her body as closely to his as possible, the woman's eyes darted around frantically. Looking nervously from every angle to see if they were being follow by Hydra. After being Hydra's captive for so long, it didn't look like she cared who had rescued her and taken her away as long a they weren't affiliated with the terrorist organization.

"You're going to be fine ma'am. We're bringing you onto our plane and once we get to our base they'll be doctors there to help you," Steve informed the woman calmly, even as he ran full speed ahead.

Eventually, Steve slowed down and just as he stopped in front of the quintjet, the bombs went off, setting off an explosion that made everyone turn abruptly around to watch. The woman in his arms flinched at the loud noise but she didn't move anymore after that. Stepping onto the quintjet, Steve laid her across one of the benches as Clint pulled the quintjet into the air to fly back to the helicarrier.

"Who is she Captain?" Dr. Banner kneeled down next to the woman that Steve brought, having already changed into a new set of clothes as the Hulk had torn a part the other set. Taking her pulse and giving a cursory physical examination, the Doctor couldn't detect any fatal injuries. Which wasn't to say that she didn't have any, given her near unconscious state.

Steve shrugged, "Don't know, Hydra had her kept in a cell. I'm hoping she can tell us what they were up to in there." The Captain glanced down at the woman before him, who was lucid enough for her eyes to dart around the quintjet warily.

"Can you speak English?" swiveling her eyes toward Banner who was still kneeled beside her head, the woman nodded.

She tried pushing herself up into a sitting position, flailing the first couple of times. Steve wrapped his arm around her and helped the woman sit up properly, before releasing her. The white hospital gown that she was wearing opened up in the back—revealing her spine and several bruises. The woman's angular features were making her look gaunter as her cheeks were sunk in and the area around her eyes dark from exhaustion and malnourishment, no doubt.

"Need…the Sun," the woman croaked, her voice hoarse from screaming.

Steve went down on one knee in order to try and hear the woman better, "What do you need?"

The woman gasped for air, as if the very act of breathing was giving her a hard time, "Sun,"

Dr. Banner watched the woman with wary eyes, "We'll need to do a full body x-ray when we get to the helicarrier. I think there's something wrong with her lungs,"

"The Sun?" Tony walked over, his interest peaked by the direction the conversation was taking, "Why'd you need the Sun for?"

"I'll contact Fury and let him know," Natasha and the rest ignored what the woman had just said, while Tony's attention was completely arrested by it. There was a niggling in the back of his mind that told him there was more to the woman that any of them were aware of.

The woman met Tony directly in the eye, and took a deep breath before starting her answer. "X…Gene…Sun…heal…," she rasped out, her body nearly giving out from the exertion.

"Well I'll be damned" Tony whistled, "We have our own little Kryptonian here,"

"Now's not the time Tony," Bruce reprimanded, causing the billionaire to shut his mouth. Of all the Avengers, Bruce Banner was probably the only one who had the patience to deal with Tony for more than a few hours but also he was the only one who could get Tony to do anything the billionaire didn't want to do, besides Pepper but she wasn't an Avenger.

"We can't get you to the Sun right now, we're on a plane. Would moving you to a window be fine?" Bruce offered, the quintjet was generally sealed off but if they moved her to the cockpit than she might just get some direct sunlight.

The woman shook her head, "No…barriers…" she started coughing, the sound become increasingly loud and when the woman placed her hand over her mouth and took it away, blood speckled it.

"Barton, you need to land," Steve commanded, alarmed at the sight of blood, "Her conditions worsening and if she says the Sun will heal her we have to at least try,"

Things like this, they would have freaked Steve out before. But that was also before he was frozen, before New York, before the aliens and gods and all the other magic and weird things that he kept running into happened. While the super soldier still felt off kilter sometimes dealing with things like this, he no longer let it surprise him.

"But Captain, we're still an hour out from the helicarrier," Clint protested, looking down at the GPS in front of him in order to confirm their location.

The archer was no inclined to stop the quintjet, especially if Hydra might be tailing them after they just blew up one of their bases. It was safer just to head straight to the helicarrier, where Hydra was less likely to try and attack.

"Barton. Land. Find the nearest open piece of land, no civilians," the tone in Steve's voice brokered no argument. Standing up, Steve walked over to the cockpit.

"This is ridiculous Captain; we don't even know if she's telling the truth…" Natasha argued but was quickly silenced by a glare from Steve.

"If the lady needs the Sun to heal, it is best we do so quickly, her health seems to be failing rapidly," the Thunder god watched as the woman's eyes fluttered shut and her body slumped back into the quintjet wall behind her.

Tony rolled his eyes, "Jarvis, where's the closest open field we can land in?" the billionaire called out, having programmed Jarvis to navigate, and under certain circumstances control, the quintjet they were currently in. "Look guys," turning toward the rest of the team, "She has the X-Gene, which means she's a mutant. Plain and simple. And if she needs the Sun, that's probably her mutation. Given the fact that Hydra had her in a basement for God knows how long and doing who knows what to her, I think if we don't want to lug around a corpse we should land,"

No one said anything, everyone surprised at Tony's impassioned speech. However, Jarvis broke the silence not a minute later. "There is an abandoned farm only five minutes away from your current location Sir,"

"Alright, alright," Barton assented and sighed, "Jarvis send me the coordinates,"

"The coordinates have already been uploaded Agent Barton. They should be showing on the GPS console now,"


	2. Chapter 2

The quintjet landed smoothly in the open field, the wind gusting around as it settled onto the ground. Everyone except Dr. Banner was suited up by the time they arrived. No one really knew what to expect; however, Tony did keep making Superman jokes the whole entire way there. At this point, Steve thought to himself, it was better to be safe than sorry as no one knew what kind of tests Hydra had done one the woman before they found her. Although, given the fact that she looked a few minutes away from dying, the Avengers weren't all that concerned with her harming them.

Stepping off the quintjet with the woman in his arms, Steve walked out into the field and brought her directly into the sunlight. Laying her on the ground, Steve took a few steps back as the rest of the Avengers fell in line with him. Dr. Banner and Clint were still in the quintjet, ready to take off at a moments notice.

Eyes fluttering shut, the woman gasped at the sensation of finally being under the Sun's light once gain. Her body began to glow a soft and subtle gold color that shocked the rest of the Avengers. All of them took an unconscious step back. As her body glowed gold, the bruises that were all over the woman's body began to fade. Her skin, that previously looked sallow and sunk in began to fill out and start looking healthy again. Coughing erratically, the woman opened her eyes, which had also turned golden, and rolled over onto her stomach—her nails digging into the dirt beneath her. Slowly, her body started to lift from the ground and toward the Sun. Of all the strange things that the Avengers had seen since the start of their rag-tag team, this one was sure to make the top five. Staying in the air for a little longer, the glowing eventually began to die down. The woman started drifting slowly back onto Earth, landing gracefully on her feet, her hair swirling around her momentarily before also settling down.

Taking a moment to center herself, the woman looked up to gaze at the Avengers, "Thank you," with the repair of her vocal chords, the woman's voice rang out clear and bright. Cocking her head to the side curiously, her face blank and hard to read, she took a step forward, "Avengers. Your reputation precedes you,"

"So you have heard of our team," Thor's voice boomed across the field, smiling delightedly, the god was happy to meet someone with abilities much like an Asgardian, if her flying into the air meant anything.

Nodding her head absentmindedly, the woman glanced at all of them before settling her eyes onto Steve, "You could say that,"

"What's your name?" the Captain managed to blurt out nervously. He had never been good at talking to dames in the past and now wasn't any different. The woman was fully healed now and Steve could acknowledge that the woman before him was one heck of a beautiful dame.

"My name is Angeline Stuart," the woman, Angeline, answered calmly.

Taking a step back, the woman turned around and began walking away.

"Wait! Where do you think you're going?" Tony moved forward in his suit, eyes narrowed behind his mask.

"I have business to finish," Angeline answered cryptically before looking over her shoulder, "Thank you Avengers. Do try and stay out of my way,"

Pushing herself off the ground, Angeline jetted into the air and quickly flew away, faster than anything the Avengers had ever seen.

"Get on the plane," Natasha commanded, already turning toward the vessel, "We have to follow her,"

Tony rolled his eyes and placed on a hand on Thor's shoulder to keep the Thunder God from chasing after Angeline, "She's long gone by now—she had to be flying at least Mach 1"

"Can a person even fly that fast?" Steve asked, knowing little about air speeds but knowing that Mach 1 was extremely fast.

"Normal people can't, but then again she's not normal is she?" Tony turned to the quintjet and calmly began to walk up it.

"How can you be so calm? We just let her get away—who knows what kind of damage she could do," Clint was standing in front of Tony now, having ran out of the cockpit after seeing the woman fly away.

"Relax. Jarvis, do a background check and search through all of SHIELD's and Hydra's files. I want everything there is to know about Angeline Stuart," the Iron Man turned back to address the rest of his teammates, "I have a GPS tracker planted on her. Snuck it on while she was still on the quintjet,"

"So are we going to follow her?" Bruce asked, his eyes cast toward the sky, squinting to see if he could still see Angeline.

"No, I'm going to have Jarvis satellite track her. Watch her movements. She's not a trained professional, she won't know how to stay incognito. While he does that, we're going to find out everything we can about her," Tony explained, getting onto his StarkPad and uploading the contents that he asked Jarvis to pull up.

"Well since you seem to have everything together Stark, you'll be the one to explain this to Fury," Natasha sneered, walked past the billionaire and boarding the quintjet.

Everyone exchanged worried glances at each other, not totally okay with the call that Tony had just made but unsure of what else to do. No one else had a way to find Angeline and she had just taken off faster than any one could chase after. It seemed all they could do now is wait.

…

"What do you mean she escaped?!" the vein in the middle of Alexander Pierce's forehead was throbbing.

Rumlow cringed but straightened himself back up before answering his boss, "The Avengers bombarded the base and Captain America took hold of the patient. However, they let her be exposed to sunlight and she ran off before they could detain her,"

"Do we have eyes on where she is now?" Pierce sat down at his desk, in the SHIELD LA Headquarters, the room was completely soundproof and Alexander had had the placed swept for bugs of all kinds before he even deigned to walk in.

"Satellite imaging has her flying aimlessly around Europe. We believe she might be looking for someone," Agent Jasper Sitwell answered in place of Rumlow.

Pierce rolled his eyes, "Do we know who?"

Sitwell shook his head, "Records indicate that in the beginning of the patients stay, there was another patient with her. However, he escaped after a few years and has yet to be seen since then. If anything he's probably dead,"

"Then why would she be looking for him? Unless she's trying to do something else? Has she been heading toward any known base locations?" there was a hint of worry in Pierce's voice.

"Not from what we can see, sir," Brock answered, trying to assuage Pierce's worries even if there were well founded.

The patient had been kept in Hydra's possession for many, many years. No one knew just how much or how little she knew about the organization and its operations. Despite technically being a captive, she had been privy to a lot of information that even Pierce himself didn't know. This was mostly because of the sheer length of time she had been under Hydra's thumb. If, in an act of revenge, she decided to come after Hydra, Angeline Stuart could easily level all the bases in existence, all the research facilities, and hunt down every single agent out there and no one would be able to stop her. Madame Hydra would not be pleased.

"Send in the Asset. We need to have her back in our possession. Make sure all the bullets are loaded with the serum, double or triple the concentration if you have to. After all these years, being exposed to the Sun again will make her more powerful than we're usually capable of handling," Pierce ordered, rubbing his temples as a migraine was building from the sheer stress.

"Yes sir," Agent Rumlow and Agent Sitwell responded together before exiting Pierce's office.

"Jasper, I suggest you lay low. I'll be doing the same. No doubt she'll be hunting us once she finds what she's looking for," Brock warned under his breath as the two Hydra agents walked through the halls of SHIELD.

Sitwell nodded, understanding where Rumlow was coming from. The patient had a keen memory, and a healthy thirst for violence and vengeance. They had all seen the videos, and what she was like in person. No one was fooled by the meek act she played or the brief moments of weakness that occurred when her energy levels were actually at all time lows.

"You think the Avengers will try to help her?" the concern was valid and it was the last thing either agent would want.

"I have to report back to Rogers soon, his strike team is heading out again in a matter of a couple days. I'll try to make him doubt her, throw him off her trail. I doubt Rogers would want to have a civil conversation with her if I can convince him she's the enemy," Brock responded, confidence brimming in his voice.

Jasper shook his head, not really buying that Brock would be able to convince Steve Rogers of anything. "It'll be a hard line to sell…"

Brock shrugged, "How hard would it be? He turned against Sharon Carter fast enough and she was just working for the CIA,"

Sighing, Jasper Sitwell shrugged. "True, we'll see then, won't we?"

…

Angeline narrowed her eyes at the sight before her. Deep in the woods of the Black Forest in Germany, was a Hydra base. The Hydra Base. The one that she had originally been captured and put in. The hate and anger that welled inside her body made Angeline feel like she was going to burst.

She watched, as agents walked in and out of the compound, around the perimeter, just going about their daily duties. This would be the second base Angeline would lay to ruin, the first one being the one that she had stumbled across in Croatia, after escaping the compound she had been locked in.

Looking up briefly at the Sun, Angeline took a deep breath before hissing air out in pain. Lifting an open hand, she concentrated everything she had in her, still incredibly weak from the decades of imprisonment. The air around her shook from the power vibrating in her body and with intense effort, Angeline closed her fist.

It was instantaneous. The walls of the Hydra compound crumbled, the ground beneath it giving in. People were yelling and screaming, trying to run out but with a lift of the head, Angeline had them flying back in toward the falling building. A huge sink hole appeared from the ground, sucking up the building and everyone in it, their screams as well as the crack of the walls and floors and everything else inside ringing through the air.

A cruel smile stretched itself across Angeline's face even as pain wracked through her body. Taking the back of her hand and rubbing it against her nose, the mutant noticed that blood had poured out.

Angeline cursed under her breath. Obviously she still wasn't back at her full capacity, if the nosebleed and searing amounts of pain were anything to go by. Eyes searching the area before her to make sure that no Hydra agent had escaped, Angeline took one more deep breath before pushing herself off the ground and bolting into the air.

The mutant remembered vaguely, a few years ago, one of the computer screens being in use had a list of active and inactive Hydra bases. In the midst of yet another dosage of the cocktail that Hydra used to keep her sedated, Angeline had memorized a good chunk of the cities and general locations of the active Hydra bases. Most of them were throughout Europe, scattered about, with only some being fully active. There were a couple on other continents, and Angeline had made sure to at least remember the cities of those.

The mutant had decided that when she was stronger, when she had absorbed enough sunlight, she could go after those bases and other bases, as all she would need to do would be to feel out the minds of the people to spot the agents. It wouldn't be hard, at full power she wouldn't even need to know or be anywhere near the cities or general locations, all she would have to do would be to feel out the minds and fly toward them.

…

"Satellites have picked up on Angeline Stuart again Director Fury," Agent Maria Hill walked up to the black trench coat clad man and handed him a pad.

Looking at the screen, Fury watched as the mutant before him laid waste to yet another Hydra base, this time in Norway. "Looks like she's doing our job for us. Agent Hill, how many Hydra locations is this now?"

Pulling out a notepad, Agent Hill used it as a reference. "Twenty, Director Fury. Twenty bases in under three months—faster than any of our STRIKE teams or even the Avengers. All of them in Europe—Croatia, Germany, Hungary, France, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Portugal, Slovenia. The list goes on and now Norway,"

"I should apologize to the Captain and the rest of the team," Fury lowered the pad when he had had enough of watching, "Obviously my reprimanding him for letting Angeline Stuart get away was hasty. Especially if she's so determined to take out Hydra before we can even locate them,"

"Sir, despite what Ms. Stuart is doing, she is still a danger, a potential threat," Mariah warned, the agent was unsure on how Director Fury wanted to proceed with this situation.

Initially, the SHIELD Director had been livid with the Avengers and how they had let the mutant, and potential source of information, away. The anger only increased when it was obvious that Angeline Stuart was powerful and capable of great destruction. She could either be an amazing ally or one of their deadliest enemies and because the Avengers had let her get away, SHIELD was less likely to recruit her to their side.

The Director had been absolutely irate, had yelled at them until they were all cowering, even Tony Stark. However, not all hope was loss since Stark had placed the tracking device onto Angeline and the mutant had yet to remove it. Either she didn't know that it was there or she had wanted them to find her and watch just exactly what she could do.

"I want the Avengers assembled. It's evident that no normal STRIKE team could handle this and we need Earth's mightiest heroes to be up to the task—see if they can be successful this time around now that they're prepared," Fury gazed out the window of the helicarrier, as if searching for something. "We need to know where she's headed and have the Avengers there before she even sets foot near the next base,"

Agent Hill nodded in agreement but Mariah had a look of doubt on her features, "Sir, there isn't any way know where she's headed next. The most that the tracking device and satellites can do is tell us where she's going in real time,"

Fury looked up, with his one good eye, onto the ceiling, contemplating his next move before turning toward Agent Hill and guiding her through the halls of the helicarrier. "We have intel on a few if not most of the active Hydra bases. She's done most, if not all of Europe which means once she picks a direction we can figure out what continent she'll be heading to next and potentially what base she'll be going after,"

It was a risky plan and not terribly thought out, with the bare bones of information available, but it was the best the SHIELD Director could think of. There was no way really to properly track the woman, she moved faster than any of their agents could catch up with, taking a more unconventional mode of travel then what they were used to following and with no set flight path.

They had tried, initially, to have one or two of the Avengers follow after her. But neither Tony nor Thor, the only two who were capable of flight, could keep up with her. And even if they did get near her, it was obvious that the mutant also had telekinetic capabilities because she would just push or hold them further behind her in the air until she was a safe distance away—usually a country or two, leaving either Avenger suspended in the air, unable to move.

It seemed that everyone needed to proceed with caution when dealing with Angeline Stuart.

…

"What did you find out about her?" Steve was sitting on a barstool at the kitchen island in the Avengers Tower. It had been just over three months now and the billionaire had been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to find as much as he could about the mutant.

Tony shrugged, grabbing an apple from the bowl in the center of the island and tossing it up in the air before catching it and taking a bite out of it. "Not much about her past. Just a list of her abilities and a string of experiments that Hydra had conducted on her,"

"So what are her abilities?" Natasha, always straight to the point, sat back with her arms crossed against her chest. "Besides what we've already seen,"

"It's stunning really," Bruce pushed his glasses up against his face, "From what Hydra gathered, not only is Angeline telepathic but she also has autokinesis,"

"English, Doctor Banner, please," Clint grumbled impatiently, not wanting to have to ask what every other word meant.

"She can manipulate energy, bend it to her will, create it, destroy it," Tony interrupted just as Bruce was opening his mouth.

"Well, yes," Bruce confirmed, unperturbed by the fact that Tony had interrupted him as the scientist was already used to that, "Which explains why she needed the Sun to regenerate. She absorbed the solar energy in order to heal herself. She could absorb anything really to heal herself but the Sun was probably the best source, think of it as a supercharged battery. But it's not only limited to that," the scientist continued on excitedly, "There's really no telling what her limits are. At the very base level, she could perform telekinetic like tasks by channeling the potential and kinetic energies of objects, but if she were to reach full power and maturity Angeline has the potential to do things like create inter-dimensional portals or…or…raise the dead!"

"Raise the dead?" the skeptical look on Natasha's face was evidence that she didn't fully believe such a thing was possible. After all the weird and strange things, they've seen as a team and separately, raising the dead was definitely not a possibility that the assassin found possible.

"Allegedly," Tony continued for Bruce, "Supposedly people have souls or spirits and those souls and/ or spirits have energy forces that she may be able to manipulate,"

"Inter-dimensional portals?" Thor sounded the word out slowly, as if tasting it, "Like the Tesseract?"

"Exactly! Angeline would be able to influence the cosmos, create a rift in space time, the possibilities are endless because everything has energy in it, around it, working through it," the doctor waved his hands excitedly through the air, causing Thor to smirk amusedly.

The others didn't seem to be as amused. The possibility of one person having that much power, more than any other person on the entire planet, it could be catastrophe.

"So she's like a nuclear bomb ready to blow the universe a part," Steve's face was settled into a deep frown.

"Surprised you even know what that is Capiscle," Tony placed a hand on the super soldier's shoulder which Steve quickly shrugged off.

"I was frozen in the ice for 70 years, I've been doing some reading to catch up," Steve turned back toward Bruce as the captain was unwilling to keep on arguing with Tony—knowing it was more of a deflection than anything from the subject at hand, "Dr. Banner?"

Bruce shrugged, "Well not necessarily, that's the hypothesis of what she could possibly do if Angeline has as much control and power as we postulate her body can handle. The energy she wants to manipulate is basically done through, well, her. Her own sheer force of will and her own energies. So if Angeline wanted to level a city to the ground, she would have to be able to handle that amount of energy funneling through her,"

"So…not a bomb then?" Natasha clarified, not exactly sure where Bruce was going with this. Either the mutant was dangerous or she wasn't, and the assassin didn't like how Dr. Banner was skirting around the issue.

"Won't be able to tell until we get her in here and test out her blood and spinal cells, until then this is all just our theories of what she could potentially do and how her power works based on Hydra's experiments," Tony elaborated.

"What was the purpose of those experiments?" Thor asked, curious as to what an organization like Hydra would want a mutant for, not that the god really knew what am mutant was as they did not have such things on Asgard.

"What does Hydra usually want?" Tony questioned rhetorically, not waiting for anyone to answer, "To recreate the serum that made him," pointing a finger at Steve, everyone's eyes swiveled over to the Captain.

"They were interested in the way her cells regenerated. Hydra thought it was close to how Erskine's formula affected you, if not better, considering how she hasn't really aged in over 90 years," Bruce informed everyone casually.

"I'm sorry did you just say 90 years?" Clint turned abruptly toward Bruce, as did everyone else once they all registered to just what the doctor had said.

"It's in the file. She was captured after WWI, while in Germany during the 1920s. Tragic really, but considering what she looks, maybe not so bad," Tony quipped, leaning against the island and watching everyone's reactions.

For Thor, although he had never heard of a human having this long of a lifespan, this wasn't as big of a deal. He and his family had been around for over a thousand years, for someone to live more than 90 and still look like they were only in their 20s, that was nothing new. However, for the rest of the Avengers this came as a shock. It would have been one thing for someone to be Hydra's captive for a couple years, but nine decades was almost unfathomable. When Bruce and Tony had first read the files that Jarvis had pulled from the Hydra servers, the two scientists had been extremely shocked as well. That shock had petered out once they had read further into the file and saw just what exactly this mutant was capable of.

"We will have to see then, if those decades of capture have truly broken her mind," Thor advised sagely, arms crossed against his chest and face solemn.

The rest of the Avengers nodded in agreement.

…

 _Bogotá, Colombia_

Unfortunately for Angeline, the Hydra base this time around was centered in a major city. At least, the mutant considered, the place was underground and thus damages would be minimal-Ish. The mutant had been scouting the entrance, planning how she would execute this next attack for the past couple of days. After finishing off Norway, she had quickly made her way through Africa, taking down the bases in Egypt, Namibia, and Tanzania. The people who had saved her, the Avengers, had tried making contact sometime around when she arrived in Namibia. Angeline didn't particularly appreciate it and she let it be known as she froze all of them in place in their airplane and didn't let them go until she was done destroying the Hydra base and already a couple of countries over.

The mutant was imminently pleased that her powers were returning to her. While they weren't nearly at full capacity, all this time under the sun and around so many different energy sources had allowed Angeline to at the very least be capable of taking down a city on her own without bleeding out of any orifices unnecessarily. It was an accomplishment the mutant was proud of, considering the amount of healing she had to do in order to fix 90 years of capture.

Now, in Bogotá, Angeline was looking for a moment to enter into the base without sounding alarms and allowing time for her to try and look for information. It was hard, given her unfamiliarity with technology, but the mutant had been trying her best to access the intel she needed. So far, everything had been a bust because she usually had to level the place to the ground unless she wanted to be shot at by Hydra agents.

However, Colombia was different. The Colombian base had less agents in general for one, and it was in a major city which meant Angeline couldn't destroy the place outright, there would be too many civilian casualties and while the mutant believed that all Hydra agents deserved to die, she didn't want to become a mass murderer of innocents.

Weaving her way through the busy streets of the Colombian country, Angeline watched through her peripheral vision the various movements and rotations of the Hydra agents guarding the main door to their base. It was interesting for her to see the men moving around in such paranoia, no doubt they had received the message of her attacks against the various bases and were on high alert.

Her focus completely captured on the Hydra agents before her, Angeline made to step forward, only for a hand to grab her by the arm and yank her by surprise into an alley way.

Spinning around and ready to use her powers, Angeline was surprised to see the familiar face of the man the world called Captain America.

"So you've found me, and somehow caught me, barely, but I will acknowledge this attempt. What is it that I can help you with Captain?" Angeline quirked an eyebrow, her face a mask of indifference that Steve couldn't see past.

"We need your cooperation on this ma'am. SHIELD has the same goal as you—take down Hydra," Steve spoke earnestly, trying to make Angeline see how genuine he was. "Come back with us, please. Or we'll have to use force,"

Angeline laughed mockingly at Steve, before slipping her arm out of his hold, "So that your SHIELD can perform tests on me as well? Keep me captured and subdued?" stepping forward, Angeline leaned in until her face was just a hair's breadth away from Steve's, "Or shall they control me like a puppet as they do you?"

Steve reared back, not liking how Angeline had encroached his space, "I'm no one's puppet."

"Do you say that to yourself to make all the whispers of doubt in the back of your mind go away? Tell me Captain, how much do you really now of SHIELD and its plans?" stepping back, Angeline clasped her hands behind her back and looked up innocently at the Captain. "Or we'll have to use force," Angeline voice mimicked Steve's tauntingly, "Is that how the infamous Captain America and his Avengers try to convince someone to join their side of things? With force? And yet you think yourself so different from Hydra,"

"We keep people safe ma'am. We're not out to control the world," Steve defended vehemently, firmly believing in SHIELD and its cause, saving the world.

Laughter rang through the air, Angeline throwing her head back, causing Steve to stare momentarily before shaking his head from the stupor. "Do you honestly believe that? That SHIELD is not out to control the matters of the world any more than Hydra?" Angeline glanced back out at the main street—watching as the Hydra agents began their next rotation, "As nice as this chat was Captain, I'm a very busy woman and I have some business to attend to. Have a nice day,"

Placing one hand on Steve's chest, the Captain was momentarily startled before his eyes shut and his body slumped to the floor. Angeline caught the man, and slowly lowered him to the ground. Snapping her fingers in front of his face, the mutant checked to make sure the super soldier really was out cold.

"You are very pretty," Angeline murmured underneath her breath before standing up and making her way toward the base entrance. It was time to exact her revenge.

Moving toward the base door, which was technically just the entrance to a house that's basement had been severely renovated and enlarged, Angeline sought to make her way in—not paying any mind to the people tailing behind her.

"Cap's out cold," Natasha was kneeling down next to the super soldier, checking his pulse to make sure the mutant hadn't killed Steve, "Speaking to her obviously isn't going to work, we're going to need to bring in the big guns,"

"Gotcha," Tony replied over the comms unit, "You sure the serum is gonna work Banner?"

"Yeah," Bruce Banner confirmed from his own comms unit. After countless weeks of research, Bruce had found the data file in which Hydra kept the formula of the serum that would temporarily subdue Angeline. At least, for long enough for them to capture her and talk to her to try and bring her toward their side, "Just make sure to at least hit her near her heart or her head. It's more effective that way,"

"Perhaps it would be prudent, if another one of us tries to speak with the Lady Angeline before we attempt to drug her as Hydra did," Thor cautioned, wary of how this would all result if it worked or didn't work.

If it didn't work, Angeline would see them as one of Hydra and seek to destroy them as well, no doubt the use of the serum to subdue her seen as a betrayal far worse than anything they had previously done in order to get her attention. If it did work, and they brought her back, she would still hate them and attempt to destroy them for even using the serum, no matter how they tried to reason with her and swing her toward their cause. It was a Catch-22 and it put a bad taste in Thor's mouth. But the Thunder God had been outvoted, as democratic teams such as the one he was in tended to run, or so he was told.

"We tried talking to her," Clint retorted, "Obviously she doesn't want to listen so we'll make her listen. We can't have her falling back into Hydra's hands,"

"I'm moving in on her," Tony informed everyone, hovering in the air above the buildings of the Colombian city, trying to make sure no one spotted him in the air but also trying to make sure he kept a visual on Angeline. "Romanoff you lined up? Barton?"

"Affirm," the two agents replied. Clint was planted on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings just a block down from the one Angeline crossing the street toward. Natasha was hiding in the shadows, blending in with the crowd, and attempting to get closer and have clearer shot.

"You sure this will work?" Natasha asked Bruce over the comms.

"Like I said last time, it should, based upon the calculations Jarvis ran from the files that Hydra kept. Her dosage was upped just a few days before her escape and she probably has built up a tolerance and energy since she's been outside for so long. So I adjusted the concentration of the formula in consideration of that," Bruce informed the Russian assassin, unperturbed by her questioning as other people might be.

"This better work, or we're going to have one angry mutant on our hands," Tony muttered under his breath, eyes watching Angeline's movement like a hawk.

"Barton, do you have a clear shot?" Natasha was slowly tracking Angeline's movements, trying to move closer but the crowd seemed to get thicker and the Russian assassin was having a hard time making her way all the way toward the mutant without making a big fuss.

"What's holding you Tash?" Bruce was watching Natasha struggle through the satellite feed of their quintjet. The Other Guy was deemed unnecessary and potentially cover breaking in this situation. So Bruce was sitting this round out.

"I feel like I'm being held back," glancing around quickly, Natasha tried doubling her speed. "Think she knows the rest of us are here?"

"If the Captain approached her, Lady Angeline more than likely suspects we are trailing her as well," Thor commented from his place in the sky as well. The Thunder God was far too much of a spectacle to do covert ops, just like Tony, so both were in the air and staying out of relative sight.

"Alright, here goes nothing," Clint notched an arrow into his bow, the end of it filled with the serum that Dr. Banner had concocted that theoretically should knock Angeline down.

Waiting a moment, Clint felt the wind shift and adjusted his position before letting the arrow go. Soaring through the air, the arrow was aimed directly at Angeline and looked ready to hit. Angeline stopped walking and it seemed like every molecule in the air shifted, the arrow changed directions and hit directly into the wall next to the mutant. Walking over, Angeline pulled the arrow from the wall and inspected it, before turning rapidly around and looking up.

Clint forced his body back, but Angeline's gaze held him in place and the SHIELD agent couldn't move from his place on the roof. Narrowing her eyes, Angeline broke the arrow in half over her knee before throwing it on the ground. Blinking once, Clint felt a pull at his navel before his body went flying backward across the rooftop, his whole back skidding against the ground before coming to a complete stop at the rooftop railing on the other side.

"Oh shit," the curse that came out of Tony's mouth was very much the same thing all the rest of the Avenger's were thinking. "Captain still out cold?"

There was a brief moment of silence. "No, I'm up," came the voice of the super soldier over the comms unit.

"You guys need to get out, she's onto us and who knows what she'll do if she catches any one of you," Bruce leaned forward toward the panel on the quintjet earnestly, as if trying to convey and emphasize through the communications unit just how important it was that they all get out now.

"I got a clear line," weaving through the crowd, the Black Widow could see that Angeline was still distracted with the rooftop and made her way closer, "Just give me a second,"

"Friend Natasha, perhaps it's better if we retreat now," there was a clear warning in Thor's tone, with an underlying sense of worry for his teammate and friend who was undoubtedly outmatched in terms of strength and power to Angeline.

"Thunder's right, get yourself out of there," Tony, not one to usually plead, was not fancying seeing one of his teammates dead on the floor in Bogotá.

"I got it," Natasha was just a few feet away now, ignoring all the voices in her ear telling her to retreat. The Black Widow was determined to finish this mission.

Just as Natasha was about to inject the syringe into Angeline, who had her back to Natasha, the mutant swiftly turned around and locked eyes with the Russian assassin. Natasha felt her body freeze into place and no matter how much force she put into it, she did not move, could not move.

Angeline gazed at Natasha with searching eyes, resisting the urge to plow through the agent's mind and find anything she needed or wanted. Usually when she did that too quickly, it caused the subject great pain, and Angeline didn't want to put any undue notice on her or her situation so close to a Hydra base who could easily catch on to what was happening. So instead the mutant kept the assassin there, frozen, and watched her warily.

Stepping closer to Natasha, Angeline moved until she was a hair breadth's away from the agent. "You think yourself better than Hydra, and yet you resort to the same tactics. There is a saying that if one lies with dogs, they will come up with fleas. Just how dirty is SHIELD in comparison to Hydra, Agent Natalia Romanova?"

Although frozen, Natasha managed to widen her eyes in apprehension, no idea with how the mutant would know her name. Struggling against the forces that were holding her still, Agent Romanoff tried her best to move the syringe in the hand in order to inject Angeline, and worst comes to worst—just run away all together.

"One last warning," Angeline leaned closer to Natasha's ear, knowing that the rest of the team could hear her if she was closer, "Stay away Avengers and let me attend to my business. Interfere, and face the consequences." Pulling back, Angeline blinked slowly, waiting for the team to register her words before moving away from Natasha quickly.

Turning around, the mutant bumped straight into the chest of a man, startling her momentarily. Looking up, Angeline noticed it was Captain Steve Rogers, awake from the little nap she had put him in.

"No can do ma'am." There was an apologetic look on Steve's face before he slammed the syringe into the side of Angeline's neck and pressed down.

Angeline's eyes widen, not expecting to be caught off guard, usually so much better at sensing if someone was approaching her. However, not long after, the mutant's eyes started to slip close and as her body crumpled, Steve caught her in his arms and cradled her against his chest before weaving his way through the streets of Bogotá and back to the car that was waiting to take the team back to the airport.


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't know Charles, something feels off in the air," Logan grumbled, leaning against the wooden paneling of the walls within the Xavier institute.

The man known to most as the Wolverine was dressed in his typical day attire: white wife beater and a pair of extremely ripped jeans. He had just spent the afternoon training in the Institute's gym and was headed for a run when he felt the sensation in the air again. The mutant was voicing the same concern to the professor that he had been for the past several weeks. Logan could keenly feel something in the air, something that changed how it normally was, some kind of energy that sought him out and drove his instincts wild.

"I've had multiple sessions with Cerebrum Logan, but there doesn't seem to be anything going on that would be a cause for concern," Dr. Charles Xavier answered calmly, not entirely sure as to what Logan was referring to.

And it was true, Dr. Xavier had consulted Cerebrum multiple times. The Professor had allowed his mind to reach all corners of the world and had found nothing amiss. There were no evident dangers above the usual, and no new particularly dangerous or spectacular mutants that needed to be guided. But the Professor also wasn't one to dismiss instinct. If Logan truly felt there was something strange, Charles Xavier was inclined to believe the Wolverine.

"I've just got this itching in the back of my brain—and I'm feeling this…force…that keeps pulling at me and I don't know what it is," Logan tried explaining the sensation that he had been experiencing just as he had done for the better part of the last few weeks. In the last few days the strange pulling sensations had been especially strong and had kept the Wolverine's feet pointed South, though the mutant didn't know why.

"Do you think it may be your memories, your brain finally healing from the trauma and the left behind memories attempting to resurface?" Charles suggested, delighted as the idea that Logan might regain the part of himself that he had been desperately seeking for so long.

The loss of his memories, and not knowing his own history, had plagued Logan since the moment that Charles Xavier had met him and invited him to the stay at the Institute. Despite numerous sessions with the Professor, within Cerebrum, with other equally strong mutants that were telepathically inclined, no one could unlock the portion of Logan's brain that had kept all of the parts of his past that he wanted to know so badly.

Logan shook his head, although not ready to dismiss the idea entirely, "I don't know. It doesn't seem like it, plus I've been here the whole time, what could trigger any of my memories this way?"

"The world is a mysterious place Logan; we cannot explain everything that goes on. Only learn from it," Charles answered cryptically, as he was ought to do, causing Logan to huff in response.

"I don't know, all I know is, if it keeps going like this, I'm gonna end up clawing someone into ribbons," Logan growled, rubbing a hand tiredly across his face. The mutant was exhausted, constantly fighting the urge to move his feet and run South, for God only knows why.

"I'll keep that in mind, my friend," Charles answered congenially, before rolling away from Logan and towards the door, "Now I believe I have a class to teach, and so do you,"

Logan grumbled under his breath, reluctant to go teach a class of pre-pubescent kids who were all way too excited and overeager. But the Wolverine followed after the telepath with no complaint coming from his mouth.

….

Victor sniffed the air again. In the woods of Alberta, Canada, the feral had returned to his childhood home, a strange pulling dragging him away from the western United States and moving him east. The mutant mistakenly thought it was just his nostalgia and instincts, wanting him to go home. However, now whatever it was that was compelling him to move, was making him go South.

The feral hadn't felt like this in a long time. Rarely had Victor ever felt compelled to go anywhere that he didn't want to go himself. But the mutant knew that if he kept moving South, he would eventually run into Jimmy. Which was going to be sad enough on its own. His poor baby brother, all alone without his memories.

Despite what most people thought, Victor was severely protective of his younger brother, the only family he had left alive. But he also respected that the things that he had did while under Stryker's influence severely damaged his relationship with Jimmy. So he let his little brother have his space, let him live that human life with that Professor.

The kid had never been the same after her death. Neither had Victor. Which is probably why they had split, neither of the brothers could stand to be around each other initially after the incident. Shaking his head of the thoughts plaguing his mind, Victor stopped moving East and started moving South, toward whatever it was that was pulling him there.

The mutant had no idea what it could be. And no doubt Erik would be mad at him for being away from the Brotherhood for so long, but Victor Creed was never one to shy away from his instincts. And his instincts were screaming at him to go South and find whatever it was that was dragging him there. The feeling was so familiar it made Victor's heart ache, the feral surprised at the feeling because he had thought his heart had hardened and turned cold long ago.

Hopefully, he wouldn't run into Jimmy along the way. Those always end up in nastier encounters that gave Victor a bad taste in his mouth. Plus, the kid still didn't have any of his memories.

…

The first sense to come back was smell. There was antiseptic in the air, letting Angeline know that she was most likely in some kind of sterile environment. Sound came next, and the beeping of a heart monitor alerted the mutant that she was in a hospital, or some kind of medical care facility. The next, sight. Eyes fluttering open slowly, Angeline looked around, before touch finally came back and she felt the IV lodged in her arm and pushing in more liquid into her body. Eventually, the mutant also noticed the handcuffs wrapped around her wrists and arms so that she was unable to move.

"So you're awake," a man in a black coat with one eye stood in front of the foot of the bed Angeline was occupying, "We had bets going to see how much longer you'd be out cold. Apparently the serum that Doctor Banner formulated was far more concentrated than anything used on you before,"

Angeline stared coldly at the man before her, forcing her will, trying to make something happen. But the terrifying familiar feeling of numbness and static filled her body and head, making it impossible for Angeline to access anything, to attune herself to anything. The mutant shook her wrists, trying to remove herself from the confines of them and the bed.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. The more you move, the more of that special little serum will be pumped into your body. Wouldn't want you inadvertently killing anyone with your powers, now would we?" the man in the black coat smirked, obviously thinking that he had won and making Angeline fume with rage.

"Let me go," grinding her teeth together, Angeline had no choice but to settle back into the bed and try not to make too much movement so that the IV wouldn't drip more into her body.

"You see, as much as that would be the right thing to do, it is also the wrong thing to do. Do you know why Ms. Stuart?" obviously a rhetorical question, the Director was met with silence and he continued along, "Because Hydra wants you and you're dangerous. Which means we can't let you go anywhere outside of our supervision,"

"If Hydra comes, I will take care of them myself," Angeline spat vehemently, unamused with the man before her and ready to snap his neck, if only she had the power to do so at the moment.

"See that," Nick Fury pointed a finger at Angeline, "That right there is why we're so concerned. You're a ticking time bomb Ms. Angeline Stuart. And SHIELD can't risk someone like you falling into Hydra's hands or going rogue and trying to take over the world,"

Angeline rolled her eyes. "I don't care about such things. I just want my revenge,"

"That's what they all say, but you'll find after decades of working in this business, I don't take anyone for just their word," Director Fury placed his hands on the bars at the end of the bed, leaning forward to stare directly in Angeline's eyes, "You were under Hydra's care for a little more than 90 years Ms. Stuart. That's a long time to be an experiment, enough time for an organization to brainwash someone if need be. Especially an impressionable young lady like the one you were,"

A confused look passed through Angeline's face before a dawning look of comprehension sparked a sadistically mischievous look in her eye. "You think I am one of them. A trap." Angeline began to laugh mockingly, openly, to the point that Fury started to shift uncomfortably. "Brainwashed to do Hydra's bidding. So that I may what? Infiltrate your organization for them? Is that what is running through your head Director Fury?"

Fury narrowed his eye, unamused at Angeline's demeanor and opened his mouth to reply, only to be reprimanded by the mutant before him. "No! Keep your mouth shut. I don't need my powers to know what is exactly running through your mind. And while I applaud your deductive efforts, obviously the files you have pulled from Hydra are incomplete. I was never a young, naïve, impressionable little girl when Hydra took me. By that time, I was nearly half a millennium old. Or did the files you stole not tell you that? It wouldn't surprise me, given how little Hydra actually knew about me. They didn't care to look beyond my powers. Just. Like. SHIELD."

….

The Avengers watched the interaction between Director Fury and Angeline through the one-way glass panel of the hospital room within the SHIELD facility that they had put her in. The Director usually was an incredibly imposing, intimidating man. Therefore, it was extremely unsettling to see someone else dominating the conversation, being one step (or maybe even several steps) ahead of Fury.

"If he stays there any longer, and keeps going with his usual song and dance, Fury will poison her against us," eyes focused on his phone in front of him, Stark was only paying the bare minimum of attention to the interaction on the other side of the wall. But it didn't take a genius to know that the conversation that the Director was making, the typical one that he usually used to make people join SHIELD, wasn't flying. The intimidation factor seemed to do little to nothing to the mutant at all.

"You don't know that," always extremely defensive of Fury, Natasha's eyes betrayed her as she watched the interaction on the other side of the glass worryingly.

"Maybe we should have had one of us approach her," Bruce considered, not liking the hostile environment that was brewing between Fury and Angeline.

"Because that worked so well last time?" Clint quipped sarcastically, causing Thor to nod along agreeably, the Thunder God also displeased with how the interactions have gone so far.

"Well let's send the Cap in there and maybe if he makes goo goo eyes at her she'll comply," Stark suggested smarmily, though from the look on his face everyone could tell he was serious.

"What?" Steve looked over at his team mates, startled, "Why me?"

"You did rescue her, like a damsel in distress," Natasha shared a look with Tony, the two coming into the same line of thought, which was probably a sign of the apocalypse itself.

"And she called you pretty," Tony smirked, "Yeah, we heard that over the comms line. You were out cold but the rest of us weren't,"

"I do not think it appropriate to manipulate Lady Angeline in such away. She has already been tortured and manipulated for a very long time, if the information you and Jarvis have extracted have indicated anything," there was an unsettled look on Thor's face. The centuries of chivalry and codes of honor that were ingrained in the Asgardian rubbed wrongly against this sort of deviousness.

"What choice do we have?" Clint threw up his hands, "It's us or them and right now with the way that Fury is conducting things, it's more likely she'll pick them. We let her go out on her own, she's going to get captured. We don't do anything to convince her, Hydra might just find a way to do it instead. This is war and we need to win every little battle we can,"

Everyone was surprised at the archer's outburst. No one knew where it came from, Agent Barton being usually so level headed, stoic even.

"You okay there Agent Barton?" Bruce eyes watched Clint warily, not wanting to set the SHIELD agent off. High amounts of stress and anger, even in other people, could set off the Other Guy and right now was not an appropriate time to also lose his own cool.

"I'm fine!" Clint announced to the group who were all watching him with various degrees of concern and confusion, "Look, she's a victim as much as any one else and right now, Fury is treating her like a hostile. He did the exact same to us and do you all remember your own reactions?" looks of comprehension were slowly coming to every member of the group, "Now imagine if you had 90 years of trauma, of mental manipulation and torture under your belt only to be treated like a hostile by everyone you meet after you're rescued. Trust me when I say I know the feeling—even if my time was much shorter than hers,"

A moment of silence descended upon the team. Everyone taking a second to really think about what Clint had said. Each team member looked at each other, sharing looks, and slowly understanding came. This was a woman who had been abused for longer than any of them could comprehend. What she needed right now was a friend, not an interrogator, not another organization that just wanted to use her.

Steve sighed, "Alright, I'll go in to see her,"

…

The Asset glanced around at the rubble of what was left of the Hydra base in Namibia. The Director was not happy. None of the leaders were at the turn of events. And because he had been tasked with subduing the patient and bringing her in, with every base that was destroyed, he had been punished.

The punishments didn't faze him. Nothing did anymore. After all these years, the only thing the Asset truly feared was the chair. The pain of the chair was beyond comprehension, and everything always became worse after it. Not a single thing would make sense, and the only things he'd know were the orders that the leaders gave him.

However, that had been changing recently. Sometimes, at night, he would have nightmares, memories, of his past. Sometimes the patient would be in them to. And sometimes, she would communicate with him. It started ever since her escape.

 _"_ _James" the calling of that name would send the Asset's eyes flying open—although he knew even subconsciously that he was still asleep, in the room that Hydra was want to put him in whenever he was back from a mission and was successful and not in need of more "discipline," and having not felt the deep cold of the room he usually slept in surrounding his limbs. Instead, a familiar warmth washed over him and he sat up and looked around._

 _The image that the Asset was presented with was a forest, somewhere he recognized but couldn't remember where. But instead of the winter cold in which he was used to, the Asset found himself standing in the forest in the middle of summer. The Sun was shining through the leaves of the trees above, breaking a part in a scatter of light. Holding up a hand, the Asset crouched down and touched the ground, before standing up and walking around a bit, feeling wonder at how lifelike and real everything felt. The ground crunched beneath his feet, and the Asset wondered how it was possible the Patient could get something like this so accurate._

 _The Patient appeared, looking much better than when he had last seen her—healthy and glowing even. The Asset was very much aware that her escape had meant that the Patient's powers had returned, he just wasn't expecting her to reach out to him. He watched her with wary eyes as she approached him. No doubt she was currently resting somewhere, the Asset deduced that there was no way she would recover fast enough in order to expend this amount of energy and still remain conscious—especially if it was over such a great distance._

 _"_ _This isn't a dream," a wicked little smile played across Angeline's face as she observed James' overall confusion over what was going on._

 _"_ _How are you doing this?" the Asset managed to find his voice, wanting to know just how much the Patient had recovered, what was the extent in which she could operate now that she was out of Hydra's grasp._

 _"_ _It's time to leave, James," the Patient approached him, her face blank but her eyes kind as she reached out a hand. "Find me," placing her outstretched hand on the Asset's arm, the Patient gripped his arm until it hurt. "We have work to do,"_

 _And like that, the Patient disappeared before the Assets's eyes and he bolted awake in his head, his head drenched with sweat and his body still warm. Besides that being the evidence that the interaction had actually been real, the Asset looked down at his real arm and saw the bruising of finger's on his skin._

 _Taking a deep breath, the Asset considered his options. There was a compellment that he was feeling, deep somewhere in his consciousness, to listen to the Patient. Whatever hold she had on him—because of her powers or not, the Asset felt the need to find her, she was right, they did have work to do. He couldn't remember what the work was, as he was want to remember anything usually, but he knew that they did. The two of them had to do something and so the Asset began preparing himself to find the Patient and reunite with her, so that they could continue on their journey._

Because of the patient, things were piecing together again, though the Asset was careful not to let anything slip, not to let anything show. He was still determined to find her, so that they could continue their work—whatever that work was. The Asset just knew that it was important, and that he needed to find her.

Especially because something was wrong.

When she escaped, the patient had left a trail for him to follow, in his mind. And there was a warm presence in the back of his mind, guiding him. Trying to communicate with him. Sometimes it would work, and she would be able to get to him. But now everything was cold and silent.

Something must have happened. That the Asset was sure of it. Thus, under the guise of tracking her down for the Director, the Asset was making his way to try and find the patient, so that she could fix him, once and for all.

…

It took a little arguing on their part. Okay, a lot of arguing. But eventually, the Avengers managed to convince Fury to let Captain Rogers meet with Angeline Stuart one on one, on his own. In the face of his super-powered team, the Director had no choice but to acquiesce. Especially when miracle upon miracles, they were all in agreement with each other for once. That was a rarity in and of itself.

Thus, Steve Rogers stood in front of the door that would lead into Angeline Stuart's hospital room, unsure with how to proceed. In terms of the team, besides Dr. Banner, he was the most like Angeline. Genetically enhanced, from a different time, and with personal beef against Hydra. But the Captain was unsure he would be able to bond with the mutant beyond that. Plus, he had never been good at talking with dames, like ever.

Reaching a hesitant hand out, Steve turned the door knob and opened the door, slowly walking in. Momentarily blinded by the white, fluorescent lights of the ceiling, the Captain's eyes adjusted for a moment before the image of Angeline appeared solid before his eyes.

She looked a lot better than she did before. Face no longer gaunt, a glow to her skin that wasn't there the day that he had took her from the Hydra compound. She had sharp, angular features—classically high cheekbones and a strong jaw. But her eyes were round, and had the possibility of looking kind, once upon a time. Steve was hoping that their conversation would go better than their previous ones.

Angeline pursed her lips, not entirely displeased with the new arrival who decided to enter into her prison room. "Captain Rogers," her voice was smooth and clear, with no detectable sign of hostility, just a casual tone that made it seem like the two of them were going to start a normal conversation, "Curious that Director Fury would send you in. I was under the impression that Dr. Banner was your resident biologist,"

"We're not going to have Dr. Banner test you, ma'am. Not unless you consent to it," stepping further into the room, Steve sat down at the chair at the opposite end of the wall from where Angeline sat.

Lift an eyebrow curiously, Angeline frowned, "Than what is it that you want?" leaning forward, Angeline met Steve's eyes unwaveringly, "Do forgive me, without my abilities, I can't anticipate everything in your head right now, no matter my powers of deduction,"

"I thought we could talk," Steve suggested lightly, uncrossing his arms from his chest in order to seem more open.

Angeline barked out laughter, "And what is it that you would like to talk about? My time with Hydra? The information that I know? Whether or not I will be joining your ridiculous little team? Fury has tried that already, what makes you think you will be more successful?"

"Ma'am, I know a thing or two about being experimented on. But I thought we could just talk." After a beat of silence when Steve realized he was the one that was going to have to give more, the super solder continued, "I was born in Brooklyn, in the 1920s. Dad was a soldier in the army, mom a nurse. He ended up dying on the front lines so my mom, Sarah—that was her name, she ended up raising me on her own," a small smile stretched across Steve's face, trying to be as warm and friendly as possible in order to tone down the hostile situation.

The mutant watched Steve warily. Not completely knowing just exactly where the super soldier was going with this. Obviously he was trying to disarm her, but why tell her person details about his own life? So Angeline remained silent and did not say anything.

Steve continued on, not discouraged whatsoever by Angeline's lack of response and went on undeterred, "I had a best friend growing up, his name was Bucky. Well really his name was James but everyone called him Bucky and his family was like a second family to me. But since I was frozen…I haven't gone to check on them yet, but I will. One day,"

The super soldier wanted the mutant to feel more comfortable around him, around the Avengers in general. But seeing as he had been put up for slaughter, it looked like he was the first person she would have to get comfortable with. And thus Steve kept going—feeling his mouth run off about his life, about everything that happened pre-serum

As Steve continued to ramble on about his life, telling anecdotes of a time when he was just a scrawny-little kid, Angeline began to settle in the hospital bed a little more. During a lull in Steve's speech, she finally decided to ask her own question. "You never met your father?"

Steve shook his head, "No, died before I was born. But mom had pictures and would tell me stories growing up,"

Angeline nodded, this story she could empathize with, "She must have been strong then, to do everything on her own," her eyes spoke of personal experience, watching her own mother work as a young child in order to provide for them when she was only a wee little mutant.

"Yeah, she was the greatest." Steve's throat tightened a little at the memory of his mother, so the super soldier cleared it before continuing, "Where were you, in the 1920s?"

The mutant looked hesitant to answer, but after a brief moment of deliberation, decided to answer, "Europe," a contemplative look crossed her face, "New York in the 1920s. I missed out on that. They said it was the city to be in,"

"I grew up in the 30s and 40s, so I wouldn't know," Steve rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, not sure how to proceed. "Things changed a lot, after the Depression…and the start of the war,"

War. That Angeline could fully comprehend. War was what she'd known all her life, war destroyed and created, brought out the best and worst of men. And a city like New York? Of course it would be hit just as hard.

"War, Captain Rogers, is a part of life. Struggle and difficulty as necessary as the air we breathe," an amused look played across Angeline's face but the mutant did not allow herself to smile, "How else are we supposed to grow?"

Surprised at the fact that Angeline decided to continue the conversation, Steve tired to muster enough bravery within himself to ask her a question, "Have you seen a lot of it? War? The files we managed to find said that you were captured after the First but there isn't much on your background,"

Angeline nodded slowly, staring at her hands that were handcuffed to the bedrails momentarily before looking Steve dead in the eye, "Yes I have. I have been walking the Earth far longer than Hydra has been in existence. It's not surprising that they wouldn't have any information of my time prior,"

There was a tired look in Angeline's eyes, one that Steve recognized. Similar to the look that vets would have after serving one too many tours abroad. But there was also a small spark of something, Steve wasn't sure of what, but he knew there was more to this woman in front of him than the revenge-obsessed, war-tired, exhausted and distrustful person that she was presenting to the world.

"Would you tell me about it? What it was like, when you were a kid?" there was a pure and earnest look on Steve's face, like a lost child trying to find direction.

The look made Angeline cautious again. With her powers, she could sense anyone's intention, could manipulate to her will, could fully comprehend a person and their motives to the best of her ability. But without them, she was left with the regular observational skills that she had, which wasn't enough to see if Steve was genuinely looking like a lost child because he didn't know how to proceed without seeming disingenuous, or if he was just a severely good actor and agent.

There was a beat, and Angeline decided that she could trust this solder in front of her. "I was born on a small farm in the 1500s," at the look of shock on Steve's face the mutant continued slowly, "My father died, as well, when I was just a young girl. Leaving me to be raised, alone, by my mother. I had two siblings, twin boys, who were younger than me and died of the Sweat before they could even reach maturity,"

"I'm sorry for your loss, ma'am," Steve consoled, meaning every word. He knew what it was like to lose people that were close to you, people that you considered family, people that were family. He couldn't imagine losing younger brothers and not being devastated at the loss. The super soldier also knew that the mutant before him was old, having been listening to her conversation with Fury, but hearing her say just exactly when she was born brought a whole other world of perspective for Steve to contemplate.

Angeline shrugged, unfazed after all these centuries, "It was a long time ago, there's nothing to be sorry for,"

"Still, they were your siblings. And losing siblings, no matter how long ago, hurts," there was a crack in Steve's voice, his tone so filled with emotion and his eyes so expressive that Angeline couldn't help but believe him.

"You've lost quite a few people haven't you Captain? Important people, people that you have loved and respected," it didn't take a genius or a telepath to see that the man before her, Angeline noted, had experience great loss and heartache.

The super soldier nodded, hands balled in fists and looked determinedly at the wall behind Angeline's head, "Yeah, I have ma'am. Thanks to the war, to Hydra. We all have—every single one of the people in my team," Steve took a deep breath, steeling himself for the next part of the conversation. The part that the people in the other room were waiting for.

All of this would be pointless unless they got Angeline to their side. And they needed her, she was more powerful than any one they had ever encountered and despite the protests of several of the team members (namely Clint and Natasha) having her around could be an incredible asset. Besides that, Steve felt, for the first time, a connection with someone. With her. She had come from the same time (sort of) as him, had been plucked out and isolated for decades. If anyone knew what it was like to be a person out of time, it would be her.

"Look, ma'am, Hydra, they're bad news. And SHIELD, while some of their tactics may be questionable, they're out to do good. To get rid of Hydra. And we could use your help," Steve struggled to find the words to communicate himself to Angeline in an original way, who had already heard this speech before. "They took my best friend from me, 70 years ago, and made me lose decades away from my friends and family. I know a little bit of what you lost and I think together, we can bring them down and get justice,"

Angeline watched Steve carefully, searching his face for any signs of falsity. The mutant recognized the look of pain and loss that painted the super soldier's features, she had seen it enough in the mirror in the mornings and at night. The emotion coming from him seemed genuine, he seemed genuine, but it didn't mean she trusted the organization that Steve vouched for. But, Angeline contemplated, perhaps she could trust the man before her—who was baring his heart and soul unabashedly, even with the knowledge that she could flay it.

Finally, after another moment of deliberation, Angeline nodded slowly. "Send in your Director, I would like to have a few words with him,"

….

Logan rolled over in his bed, grumbling underneath his breath. Sleep had evaded the mutant for the better part of the last few days.

The nagging that he had been feeling in the back of his head, the need to move his feet and head South hadn't evaporated. It had only gotten worse. Despite what the Professor said, the feral still had a feeling in the pit of his stomach and the small feeling in the back of his mind had turned into something more. Before, it was more like a nudge, a little hint, but now it was like there was something crashing around in his mind, urging him to move. To find something that he had no recollection of, that he wasn't familiar with.

Flashes of memories would come back to him sometimes. Brief conversations, an image in his head. A melodic voice that Logan didn't recognize. At first, they had only come once every few days. But as time moved on, as weeks passed, the brief images became more and more frequent. They were still jumbled up and only partial, never making more than a brief appearance, never a full story or conversation.

A flash of dark hair. An image of startling blue eyes. A smile. Laughter. The woods. The images would bombard him at the most inconvenient of times. And after the images would flood his mind, the persistent force would urge him to move again, becoming stronger and stronger each time. It was starting to get hard for Logan to resist.

Professor Xavier didn't know what was wrong with him either, unable to access that portion of his mind. Whatever it was, it was being protected by a strong barrier within Logan's mind that only the mutant had access to, and even that was limited. But the Professor advised to not move, thinking that whatever it was, to be able to breach the mind of the Wolverine, it had to be a trap by one of their enemies. Perhaps Erik had found another telepath, this one stronger than any that they've encountered, to try and brainwash Logan away.

He had tried going to Jean. Their interaction had been…awkward. Not initially, when it was the two of them it was the usual banter that he had with the redhead. It didn't get stilted until Scott walked into the room, the man still not particularly happy whenever Logan and Jean were alone together despite the fact that Logan had promised that he would back off. So Logan asked Jean to go in his head, with Scott watching them in the corner of the room. But even a strong of a telepath as Jean was, she couldn't even get in his head and find out what was wrong. So Logan was left to his own devices.

His gut was still rolling around, making him nauseous sometimes. That had started only a few days ago. The headaches and nausea were actually getting worse really, the more he tried to ignore the call. The Professor had told him that perhaps it would pass, but Logan was finding that hard to believe. Something this strong had to be an omen for something and there was no way that it was just going to pass on its own.

Rolling out of his bed, and throwing on his leather jacket, Logan made his way out of the institute. Firing up his motorcycle, the mutant decided that he would go out for a drive in the woods, hoping that at least would clear up his mind.

!


	4. Chapter 4

Nicholas Fury had been Director of SHIELD for many years. And during that time, he had encountered a great number of strange and mysterious things, meeting an even greater number of enhanced beings who generally, he was able to recruit or at the very least extract promises from them that would lead to their coming to his aide later down the line.

Despite his vast experiences with the other worldly and enhanced humans, Director Fury had never met a mutant quite like one that sat handcuffed to the hospital bed before him. In no normal scenario was Angeline Stuart supposed to be alive. Born almost a half a millennium ago, she should have died, up against the whole Avengers team with no other weapon except herself, she should have been easily subdued. But instead, Angeline Stuart sat in front of Nicholas Fury looking not a day over 22 and completely healthy despite the pallor that the serum was causing her to have. And the only reason she had decided to even slightly cooperate was because Captain Goddamn America had somehow convinced her.

But she wasn't like Captain America. He had been frozen for 70 years, and injected with a Super Serum that had made him enhanced. The man had passed tests to make sure that he was ready and qualified, had all the characteristics needed for America's first superhero before he was even allowed near the Howard Stark's device. Angeline on the other hand was born with the X-Gene, she didn't have to go through the same tests, didn't have to have her character analyzed for every bit of good and bad in her because she was already born with her gifts. The only prior experience the Director had with mutants was through Charles Xavier.

But contacting Charles meant letting the man have a go at Angeline and potentially losing a very useful asset. Undoubtedly the Professor would want for the mutant currently sitting down across from him to join their little school, and the man had a way with words and people that Fury knew he lacked. Additionally, considering the agreement that Fury had with Xavier, he wouldn't be able to refuse or stop Angeline from leaving should she choose to go with Charles.

"It seems our dear old Captain has managed to convince you to listen this time around, am I right Ms. Stuart?" Director Fury leveled Angeline with an unamused gaze, his hands clasped behind his rimrod straight back.

"No, he has convinced me to speak with you, and you will be the one who is doing the listening," Angeline snapped back, her voice hostile although her face remained a perfect, expressionless mask, "If you truly seek my help in destroying Hydra once and for all, there are terms,"

"Terms? Of the two of us who is one, strapped to a hospital bed and two, completely defenseless right now?" Nick Fury smiled, amused, a grin stretching across his teeth, "Because it certainly isn't me,"

"Just because I'm currently handcuffed and momentarily incapacitated, doesn't mean I always will be Director," Angeline enunciated each word slowly, her gaze unwavering from Fury's face, "It would be wise for you to listen for once in your life,"

Director Fury gritted his teeth, his eyebrow raised at the audacity of the woman before him, "No one ever said we needed your help to take down Hydra Ms. Stuart. We just need you contained and out of the way,"

Angeline snorted, "I left one snake pit just to find myself in another," eyes lazily perusing the room she was placed in, Angeline wondered to herself just how much of her hand she should show, "Tell me Director, if you do not need my help or the information that I have—how much do you trust the men and women within this facility that you have placed me in? With your life? With the security of the country? The world?"

"And what exactly do you mean by that Ms. Stuart?" the Director's back stiffened, unsure with what the mutant before him was referring to but not liking the ominous tone in her voice and a sense of foreboding came over Director Fury, making him tense.

"Don't you know?" Angeline looked amused now, her face taking on an expression of mocking, "You built this facility, grew SHIELD from the small little agency that it was to a global powerhouse that no one knows of, to neutralize and destroy any potential threats and enemies, only for your enemies to be right here beside you. Hiding in plain sight,"

By the look on Fury's face, everyone on the other side of the glass could see that he didn't like what Angeline was implying, "Are you suggesting that I have members of Hydra within this facility?"

"Well, I wasn't suggesting anything Director—I was telling you," trailing a finger delicately on the plastic handrail that her wrist was handcuffed to, Angeline stared directly into the eye of Director Fury. "And it is not just within this facility Nicholas,"

"And how do I know you're telling the truth?" Fury demanded, his paranoia skyrocketing.

Angeline's eyes sparkled with amusement, "Oh Director Fury, so distrustful, even when the truth is starting at you right in front of your eyes. But, if you want confirmation instead of just listening to the words I am saying," pausing for a moment to savor the look of impatience of Fury's face, Angeline waited until she saw a vein throbbing on the man's forehead before proceeding, "Bring in Agent Jasper Sitwell."

…

"What could she possibly want with Agent Sitwell?" Steve wondered aloud, the rest of the team standing behind him as the super soldier was almost pressed completely up against the glass, wanting to see every interaction between the Director and Angeline.

Tony shrugged, "Who knows, but whatever it is that she has to say has Fury on high alert," walking around the Captain to stand by his side, Tony pointed a finger at the Director and pushed it against the glass, "Look at him, he's tenser than Pepper is after a board meeting,"

The rest of the Avengers were hovering around the glass in the other room as well, everyone taking turns standing in front trying to see what they could suss out based upon the body language, none of them relying completely on the words that were being spoken between the pair. The cold looks that were being passed between the two could have froze water, and no doubt should Angeline have her powers she would have really froze water.

"Friends, perhaps one of us should retrieve the Agent Sitwell for Lady Angeline and Director Fury—so that whatever information that he has can be provided?" Thor suggested, always wanting to be helpful, especially in situations he was extremely unfamiliar with.

"Director Fury ordered us not to pursue any actions and stay out of his way Thor," Natasha responded deadpan, her face expressionless and voice monotone.

Used to these types of orders, just like Clint who was standing by her side unfazed, the Black Widow did not feel an overwhelming need like the rest of the team to burst in and interfere in any of the proceedings. Neither did Hawkeye. If Director Fury wanted Agent Sitwell to be retrieved, and by them, he would order it. The man would not appreciate their unnecessary help, especially if it wasn't his intention to ever bring Agent Sitwell in.

"She only been here for a while and she's been unconscious for most of it, she hasn't even had any interactions with anyone save us and Fury—what could she have on Sitwell?" Bruce voiced his thoughts out loud, the rest of the Avengers nodding in agreement as they were in on the same line of thought.

"Well, that depends, what does Sitwell know that we don't?" Clint asked, arms folded across his chest and leaning against the wall—mouth set in a firm line as the agent was clearly not pleased with this update.

"Who knows, but looks like Fury really did have Agent Sitwell called in, check it out," Tony extended an arm, gesturing toward the glass before him in which the door had just opened in the other room and Agent Sitwell walked in to stand beside Fury.

 _"_ _Agent Sitwell, come, Ms. Stuart seems to think she has information that could be pertinent for me to know," Director Fury gestured for the Agent to come further into the room._

 _Agent Sitwell eyes darted between the Director and the woman lying on the hospital bed before him, his eyes especially lingering on the handcuffs that were resting daintily on the mutant's wrists and the wild look in her eyes that spoke of pain and revenge. However, the Agent kept his face stoic, not allowing a single emotion to be portrayed upon his face._

"Sitwell looks nervous," Clint observed, after years of working on the job, Barton could tell just from the Agent's minute movements that the man was hiding something. His mouth turning down into a frown as the agent could not think of a reason why Japer Sitwell would be nervous to see Angeline when she was fully subdued and without her powers.

"Wonder what dirt the lady mutant over there has on him," Tony wondered aloud, pulling out his Stark pad and beginning to search through a mess of files—not communicating with the rest of the team his plans. Though they were used to that by now.

 _"_ _Hello Jasper, do you remember me?" Angeline sat up straighter, before leaning forward, a predatory smile carving itself onto her face._

Everyone turned their gazes from Angeline to Agent Sitwell, who despite knowing that Angeline was powerless, had turned very pale at the mutant's attention upon him. Although his face was carefully masked in an air of nonchalance, there was a notable tension between the two. All eyes stayed on the scene before them, interested to see what would happen next.

 _"_ _I'm sorry, have we met?" Jasper answered casually, sidestepping just slightly so that Fury's body was more in front of Angeline than his was, a move that was noticed by most, if not all, of the Avengers._

 _Clucking her tongue, Angeline chuckled slightly under her breath, "Now, now Jasper—don't you want to tell the good Director the truth? About all the fun times we had together?" tiling her head to the side, a coy look painting itself on her face, Angeline bared her teeth at the agent, "Or will I have to extract it out of you?"_

"Isn't she powerless right now?" Steve asked aloud, wondering what Angeline was trying to do.

"Yes," Natasha confirmed, "But Sitwell doesn't know that,"

 _Agent Sitwell remained silent, though he did cast an exasperated look at Fury, turning toward his boss to speak directly with him, "What did you want me to do with her, Director?"_

 _Fury watched the interaction between the two, the wheels inside his mind turning, taking a deliberate moment before he decided to answer, "Answer her questions,"_

 _A frown started to show up on Angeline's face before the mutant turned her attention to Director Fury. "This would go more easily if you'd let me out of these handcuffs and stopped doping me up."_

 _Fury raised an eyebrow, "And how do I know that you won't just up and try to escape,"_

 _Angeline shrugged, "You don't, but now that I know who's here, I'm more intrigued than ever to stay...and help things along,"_

 _Snorting, Fury crossed his arms against his chest, "Can I get that in writing?"_

 _"_ _If that's what you want," Angeline hummed, her eyes watching Sitwell predatorily, never leaving her gaze from him, even as she spoke to Fury._

 _The agent watched the interaction between his boss and the mutant cautiously, unsure with how to proceed._

"Think we can trust her?" Bruce asked the rest of the team, unsure of how this would play out.

"About as far as we can throw her," Clint answered, eyes watching the whole thing warily. Barton didn't believe at all that something as simple as a contract would tie her to SHIELD and keep her from retaliating on them should she choose to do so.

"As far as you can throw her," Tony answered Bruce pointedly, "And regular you, not the Other Guy. If he threw her, we'd have to fly to the other end of the state to get to her,"

Everyone gave an exasperated sigh at Tony's comment, although the Iron Man had a point. The bickering continued for a bit longer until everyone noticed that the people on the other side of the glass had started speaking again.

 _"_ _Agent Sitwell, are you working for Hydra?" direct and to the point, Fury was done playing games. Too much was at stake now, the security of SHIELD and all of its secrets._

 _Jasper shook his head calmly, his eyes never leaving Fury's, "Of course not Director,"_

 _"_ _He's lying," Angeline sang, "Would you like me to prove it to you? Release me. Let me show you how much he's lying about,"_

 _Fury's eye shifted between Sitwell and Angeline, unsure of who to trust. Although Jasper had been a good agent for many years, above all else, Fury trusted no one. And if what Angeline said had any weight to it, then SHIELD was in more danger than anyone thought. Taking another second, Fury pulled out his own StarkPad, and put in the access code to release Angeline from her confines._

 _The handcuffs hissed open and the serum stopped its flow into Angeline's veins. The mutant, in response, ripped the iv out of her arms and sat up even straighter, looking ready to pounce. Agent Sitwell took an unconscious step backward, something everyone in and out of the room noticed._

 _Rolling her shoulders back, Angeline chuckled underneath her breath. The mutant glowed gold once again, restoring herself using the energy around her, just enough so she could to do what was necessary. Her eyes stayed on Jasper Sitwell like a hawk, never straying._

 _"_ _You have five minutes Ms. Stuart, or I will have my agents in the other room subdue you," Fury warned, not entirely pleased with how this situation was playing out but wanting to know the truth, and reluctantly acknowledging that Angeline would be able to get a hold of it. Something tickled the back of Fury's mind, after all these years as a master spy, he could tell when someone was telling the truth and the vehemence in which Angeline Stuart spoke about Jasper (the fact that she even knew his name) spoke a lot about her._

"This is not good," Agent Romanoff observed, taking her gun out of its holster and ready to enter the room and protect Fury if need be. The Russian assassin didn't trust the mutant whatsoever, wary of her powers and who her allegiance was to.

"Take a second Red, lets see where this goes," Tony stuck an arm out, halting Natasha in her tracks and keeping her from moving.

Steve's eyes stayed peeling at the scene in front of him. He wanted to believe that there was at least some good in Angeline, having talked to her and feeling like they already bonded. The Captain, after so many disappointments in life, did not want to be proven wrong. He held his body still, like a soldier, completely taught and ready to move if need be but not wanting to whatsoever.

 _"_ _Would you like to repeat your answer, Jasper?" Angeline purred, sliding herself off the bed and approaching the Agent._

 _Gritting his teeth, Agent Sitwell tried to open his mouth but only managed to slightly before shutting it close once again. Eyes widened, Agent Sitwell began panicking and in an effort to speak he bit down on his tongue so hard it began to bleed and blood started to pour out of his mouth._

Everyone in the other room watched in alarm at the Agent's struggle and all eyes turned to Angeline who was glaring menacingly at the Agent before her.

 _"_ _Don't lie," she hissed._

None of the Avengers knew what to do. Of course they wanted to stop this but everyone was much to stunned at the extent of Angeline's powers. They hadn't seen anything like this before, not even with Loki—who could use illusions and mind tricks, but wasn't one to actually be able to stop someone from speaking in their tracks without already being in full control of their body and with help from the Tesseract and his scepter on top of that. Furthermore, Fury had yet to object which was also a reason to pause on any course of action. If the Director hadn't said anything it was because he wanted to see how this would all play out.

 _"_ _Y—y—yes," Agent Sitwell managed to choke out. After the admission, the hold Angeline had on him dissipated causing the Agent to slump forward and gasp for air._

"How do we know she didn't just coerce that statement out of him?" the Black Widow demanded. She was skeptical at best at the performance she had just seen. And that's exactly what it was. A performance, at least in her opinion, for Angeline to flex her powers and show everyone just exactly what she could do and how helpless they all were to it. Director Fury seemed to have the same concern and he voiced them out loud for Angeline to hear.

 _"_ _So distrustful," Angeline crooned, "Would you rather I showed you all his memories instead?"_

 _Fury was not given an option to reply. Next thing he knew, someone was screaming and his heads with filled with images of Agent Sitwell. His life. His career. And his involvement with Hydra. Added were images of his interaction with Angeline when she was prisoner at the base they just destroyed. The screaming, he realized belatedly, was coming from Agent Sitwell—who obviously wasn't having his memories extracted in the most pleasant of ways._

Somehow, Angeline knew that they were on the other side of the one-way mirror. Because next thing the Avengers knew, the images and memories that were presented to Fury were being blasted into their heads. Quickly and with so much detail that there was no way that any of it could be fabricated.

In the end, one thing was clear above all. Jasper Sitwell was Hydra.

…

Agent Jasper Sitwell was taken away to one of the containment cells. The man didn't speak a word after what Angeline revealed to them. Mostly because the Agent had passed out from the pain of having his memories extracted by Angeline, and thus his body was carried to his new home, the prisoner cells in the basements of the facility they were in.

The information very much surprised the Avengers and had them all speechless for several minutes. Especially Agent Romanov and Agent Barton, who had basically invested their lives into SHIELD and had trusted the organization wholly. The reality of Hydra infiltrating SHIELD was a rude awakening neither were expecting to have.

Everyone stayed silent for a few moments. Even Tony Stark, who usually couldn't stop talking, was somber. The tension in the room was thick and all the Avengers glanced at each other wondering what they could possibly do now. Eventually, they all decided to go into the room that was housing a tired Angeline and a stoic looking Director Fury. It looked like such a burst of power after being subdued for so long took a lot out of the moment.

It was Steve, who finally decided to break the silence after the Avengers all burst into the room. "Who else?"

Everyone's heads whipped up and stared at him, as if processing his words. They couldn't even imagine there being any more Hydra agents within SHIELD when it was just revealed to them that there was one, especially considering that one agent had a high clearance level and was privy to a lot of SHIELDS movements and secrets.

"So many more. Would you like me to point them out? Have them come in one by one and reveal their memories to you," Angeline offered ominously.

Fury watched Angeline, knowing that there had to be a catch to all this. The Director knew there had to be another motive, it couldn't have just been revenge for the mutant, not when there was so much anger and a thirst for revenge. "What do you really want? It can't be just about Hydra. This is personal for you."

Angeline swiveled her attention over to Fury, "Observant. But then again you are the Director. You have to be observant. Eliminating Hydra is one of my top priorities. And given how incompetent your organization has been operating," the woman sneered, turning her usually stunning face ugly for a moment, "I believe you could use all the help you can get,"

"And that's all?" Bruce asked disbelievingly.

"There is something else you want, is there not Lady Angeline?" Thor asserted.

They were all met with silence for a moment, as Angeline contemplated whether or not she wanted to answer the people before her. Everyone waiting with bated breath for her reply, anxious to see what the woman's true motive was. Though some of the group, like Fury, Romanov, and Barton, were far more distrustful than the remaining Avengers.

"Why does there have to be more? Why can't my explanation be enough? I was held captive for 90 years, shouldn't my revenge be all that I need?" Angeline raised an eyebrow, curious as to what the Avengers or Fury would come up with.

"It would be, if it weren't for the fact that you could easily do all that on your own. You don't need us for that. So why cooperate now, unless you wanted something? It couldn't have been Fury's motivating speech about how we want you contained like a pet?" Natasha sneered, not able to believe the woman in front of him at all. Especially not after that display of power.

Angeline clucked her tongue, feeling incredibly reluctant to proceed further but deciding to anyway. "I can see into your minds. And while I have not delved fully into them, I know from what I have gleaned that the machines you use now are far more advanced than what I have encountered previously. Technology that I cannot operate. And with those advancements, come the ability to find people, does it not?"

"And who do you want to find Princess, everyone you know is probably dead," Tony snapped smarmily, managing to find his voice, which was cracking slightly from stress.

Shooting a dark look at Tony, the Captain couldn't help but slightly agree, "Ma'am, Tony's right," Steve began tentatively—not liking the fact that he was agreeing with the arrogant billionaire, "I would know…all my old friends, the Howling Commandos, Peggy…" voice stuttering off, Steve straightened up again as he regained his confidence, "Ma'am there's no guarantee that anyone you want to find is still around,"

"Oh he's still around," Angeline hummed, "I can feel it in my bones. Him and his brother have an uncanny ability to survive anything life throws at them,"

Fury eyed her skeptically, the same look of cynicism was plastered on Natasha and Clint's face as well. "Let's say we do find these people, what do you want them for?"

Angeline clenched her hand into a fist in frustration, "I don't want them for anything. They're my family—the only family I have left. I need them,"

"I thought your family was dead," Steve approached the mutant, kneeling down so that he was level with Angeline, who sat on the edge of her hospital bed.

The mutant shook her head, "Not them, they're just like me, they won't be dead—not of natural causes anyway,"

All the Avengers glanced at each other, deliberating amongst themselves whether or not to believe the woman before them. So far, she had been able to identify a Hydra operative right within their own organization. From what they could tell, she was only captured by Hydra because of her capabilities—she wasn't actually loyal. And if they could convince her and her supposed family to join them, it would just be more soldiers added to the army for the fight against the evil organization.

It was Thor that spoke first, his understanding of the need for family and Angeline's resemblances to Loki that drew his sympathy.

"What are their names?"

"James Howlett and Victor Creed,"

…

Angeline passively watched from her corner of the gym as the Avengers prepped the testing apparatuses before her.

Fury had compromised. They would begin looking for James and Victor as long as she helped identify Hydra agents within SHIELD. Angeline would not be allowed to go on the base raids, as Fury was still reluctant to put his full trust in her. Instead, Angeline would be staying in the Avengers' Tower with the rest of the team in New York—as she became more acquainted with the world around her.

And while they wouldn't completely subdue her, there was a requirement for her powers to be dampened through a mixture of medical cocktails that would be injected into her arm once a day by Doctor Banner until such time they could fully trust her. Angeline had fought vehemently against it at first, not wanting to put herself in a position where she was weak whatsoever. But after hours of negotiating and arguing, the mutant acquiesced—she would do anything to find James and Victor, even if it meant dampening her powers.

Right after the meeting, Steve had offered to help out and accompany her, as he was also still learning much of the world. The super soldier wanted to get to know Angeline better, feeling a kindred spirit in the mutant as the two shared experiences that no one else could understand and came from (kind of) the same time period and thus knew as little about the modern world around them as the other. Although, Angeline did point out that she could just extract the information from the minds of others, the Captain had convinced her to go with his approach instead.

Angeline reluctantly accepted the Captain's offer, for some reason she found herself endearing to the super soldier. Finding lost and damaged souls and taking them under her wing had always been a specialty of the mutant, and it seemed that after all the years of torture and capture, it still wasn't any different. Despite her open hostility to him in the beginning and her reservations to the team and to him generally, Angeline wanted to be able to trust an organization that was set along the same path as hers—for as long as it would benefit her.

Hardened by hundreds of years of death, bloodshed, and sometimes persecution—she had learned long ago not to invest too much in people and not to gain any affection for those who's life expectancies couldn't even compare to hers. Whose general abilities couldn't even compare. After all, the last time she let her heart get involved—even with people who were just like her, she ended up being a prisoner for decades.

Not that she regretted James and Victor. But they were survivors too, and that made Angeline believe them to be more worthy of consideration. They wouldn't die, naturally or otherwise, faster or quicker than her and leave her own her own.

Now, in order to see just exactly what she could do—the Avengers were preparing machines in order to get a diagnostic of Angeline's capabilities. So far, they only knew about the telepathy and the healing. And Angeline wasn't all too forthcoming either on her own experience with combat.

"So, Kara-El," the reference had Angeline quirking an eyebrow as she still did not know what Tony Stark, who evidently was the Iron Man, was talking about, "Pick your poison. Guns? Knives? Bow and Arrows like Legolas over there?" inclining his head toward Agent Barton, Tony held his hands up in mock surrender when said Agent turned to glare and point his own bow and arrow at the billionaire.

"I do not know what you are referencing to," was Angeline's blunt reply, "But I do not need any weapons,"

"So hand to hand then like Widow over there," Tony mused, "Though she's been known to use knives and guns too. You sure about this, sweet cheeks?"

"Stop with the flirting Stark and let's get this test started," Natasha was twirling a knife in her hand and glaring rather impatiently at Tony.

"Fine, fine—are we ready Bruce?" turning to holler at Doctor Banner, who was standing by the control panels.

"All ready," Banner confirmed.

Thor walked over and placed a hand on Angeline's shoulder, "Fear not—no real harm will come to you,"

Shrugging his hand off, Angeline stood, "Please refrain from touching me so casually," turning to Thor, "And don't worry so incessantly either,"

"Good luck Angeline," Steve interrupted before Thor could answer, nodding to Angeline.

Making her way toward the center of the gym, Angeline stared straight ahead—her eyes rushing with the sound of her blood that hummed with power. She barely even heard Stark call the diagnostic system to start.

Immediately, the suits that Tony had apparently been building in order for the Avenger's to train with, came to life.

"Don't worry," Tony shouted from his corner of the gym next to Bruce, "We put the setting to non-lethal so they won't try to blow you a part!"

"Nice Tony, really reassuring," Bruce muttered, shaking his head at Tony in vexation.

Angeline did not respond. Only stood still as one of the suits, as there were four of them, began to make its way toward her. Angeline Stuart merely lifted a glowing gold hand—open and with a slight motion, before the suit, designed apparently after the Iron Patriot, went flying in the wall of the gym.

The action caused all the Avengers' eyes to widen in shock. They had seen Angeline perform her powers before, but to be so close and to see how little effort she actually put into it was still a alarming sight. But before any of them could voice their questions or make any kind of remark, Angeline closed that same hand into a fist and the other three suits crumpled into themselves. Metal and electrical wiring entangled together, no one needed to get closer in order to know that the three suits were beyond repair.

Turning slowly toward the Avengers that were behind her, Angeline looked bored and merely crossed her arms before her chest and raised an eyebrow, "Is that all you've got?"

The next hour proceeded in a flurry of activity. Tony called up more suits and each time Angeline crumpled them to pieces. Then, Agent Romanov called in real agents—expecting Angeline to spar them now seriously. Instead, with a flick of her wrist all the agents' necks would snap a certain way and they would be rendered unconscious.

Watching Angeline "fight," was like watching a bored kid who didn't want to be with mom at the office but was dragged along anyway and was finding something to do. In deference to Angeline, she was only using a fraction of her power—still feeling the affects of the serum and not being able to tap into her reserves fully. The Avengers didn't know that, but they were both surprised and slightly terrified anyway. No one had this sort of power—at least, no one they encountered so far. Not even the All Father, whose magic was the most similar—in Thor's opinion anyway.

When the diagnostics were done—or in this case, when no other agent would volunteer to fight Angeline and she had crushed all the suits that Tony was willing to spare, all anyone could do was stare as Angeline walked off to the water fountain to get a drink.

"What is she?" Steve asked aloud—hoping one of his teammates could tell him.

Watching Angeline fight was one of the most amazing and scary things Steve had scene in a long while. She looked so unaffected the entire time and yet the things she was doing; it was almost God-like…even more so than what Thor was capable of.

"She must not be wholly human," Thor declared, "Perhaps she is of Vanheim like my Queen Mother? Or of Asgard…though if she was, I'm not sure how I do not know her,"

"No, she's most definitely human," Tony countered easily, "Said she has the X-Gene which makes her a mutant but human all the same,"

"How progressive of you Stark," Natasha snorted.

"I've never seen a mutant this powerful except maybe…" Clint trailed off, not finishing his sentence as a very troubling thought entered his mind and made him frown.

Tony huffed and crossed his arms in indignation, "First of all, mutant rights are just as important. Second of all," meeting eyes with Clint, "I would say that whoever you're thinking of—Angeline here is a hundred times stronger. The woman barely even flicked her hand and she basically demolished all the suits I had brought here!"

"I'm sorry about that," interrupting the current discussion, Angeline floated up to the group, "If you would rather I didn't destroy your suits please let me know and I will endeavor to incapacitate them instead,"

Everyone stared wide eyed at Angeline. A few of the Avengers laughing shakily. Tony just huffed in annoyance.

….

"You're something else,"

"Excuse me?" the words had been out of Steve's mouth before he could stop them and now Angeline was looking at him, bewildered with his comment.

The two of them were alone in the gym. Thor having flown off to go see Jane, Barton and Romanov had swiftly left to report their findings to Fury, and Tony and Bruce were undoubtedly doing science and up to no good. Well at least, Steve suspected, Tony was the one up to no good. Steve, being the only one that had interacted with Angeline for an extended period of time alone, had been left behind to chaperone her—no one trusting that she wouldn't try to run off yet.

"I just mean," rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment Steve wasn't sure how to continue, "That I've never really met a dame…I mean lady…I mean woman…"

The super soldier wasn't sure why he was getting nervous now. Before, when he was just telling Angeline about his life, Steve had gotten through the conversation without very much stuttering or any sort of nerves. But now, it seemed like he was having the hardest time even stringing a sentence together. The Captain recognized the fact that before it probably had to do with the fact that Angeline had looked near death before, the energy and life almost completely drained out of her because of her capture. And now, she was dressed in Natasha's skin-tight work out clothes and looking much healthier and more alive than she was before.

Holding up a hand to stop Steve before he could continue down this path—Angeline looked at the Captain as if she was drinking everything about him in. And perhaps she was. "I understand what you are trying to imply Captain,"

"Steve," the Captain blurted out, "Just call me Steve ma'am," cursing himself slightly, Steve's cheeks heated up slightly in embarrassment. Even after all this time he was still incapable of talking to women naturally. Even after having a long conversation with her, seeing Angeline standing up fully healthy was different than interacting with her when she looked near death on a hospital bed. The mutant just seemed a hundred times more intimidating now.

"You have only lived for 20 some odd years Captain," Angeline continued on as if Steve hadn't interrupted her; of which he was thankful that they were ignoring his little blunder, "I'm almost half a millennium old. I've met many powerful and extraordinary people—both normal and mutants alike. You'd be surprised by the powers that some mutants have. I am in no way unique,"

"I'd say the exact opposite ma'am. You're one of the most extraordinary persons I've had the pleasure of meeting," Steve stressed to Angeline, wanting her to not doubt his sincerity.

And the Captain was sincere, he'd never met anyone close to Angeline in terms of sheer power and ability. Despite her rather mercenary personality at times, Steve could tell Angeline was a good person. Her first request, if you could call it that, besides being taken to the Sun, was to be reunited with her family. The super soldier was disregarded the part where she incapacitated them so that she could escape, because even though she did, Angeline had immediately set to work at dismantling Hydra—which wasn't something really to count against her in his books. There were values there. It was just buried under 90 years of torture. Which was totally understandable in Steve's mind. Some veterans came back completely scarred (mentally, emotionally, physically) after coming back from the front lines after a couple years. The Captain couldn't even fathom enduring 90.

"You must not have met many people during your time then,"

Steve shook his head, "I've told you, I traveled throughout Europe and the States ma'am, I've met plenty of people. Seen plenty too. You're not like the people here," raising a hand and waving it broadly as if meaning to signal to Angeline the people in this era, "You've got values and integrity—and you're brutally honest. You're uncompromising and incredibly intimidating, sure, but you're good. Hydra's treatment of you has just got you all kinds of screwy but you're out now,"

A small smile graced Angeline's lips before she shuttered her emotions away, clearing any expression from her face. "You are far too kind. And far too good Steve Rogers," placing a delicate hand on Steve's own, Angeline gave it a light squeeze before pulling away, "There are enemies everywhere, as you have seen. It's time to inject some cynicism into you, if you want to survive this ordeal,"

"What do you mean?"

"There are Hydra agents swarming within SHIELD. Perhaps it is better if you learn to be more distrustful—you never know just who will come and try to stab you in the back or shoot you down,"

Steve mulled over what Angeline said a moment before choosing to respond. "That depends, ma'am."

"On what?"

"Do you plan on trying to kill me any time soon?" the question clearly caught Angeline off guard. Even as a telepath she couldn't always tell what a person's line of thinking would lead to them saying. And generally she tried to stay out of peoples' heads unless purposefully trying to extract important information. Otherwise, it would be far too many voices jumbling around in her head, trying to drive her crazy.

"You know I could if I wanted to," Angeline warned, once she recovered her senses.

"But you won't" A smile graced Steve's face as Angeline slowly shook her head. The Captain didn't know why, but he felt like he could really trust this taciturn woman. "Alright then, well as long as you cover my six—I've got yours too ma'am,"

"I'm sorry, what?" confusion painted Angeline's face and Steve realized after the fact that this woman was captured during at time even before he was born. Of course she wouldn't even know what he was saying, let alone what anyone else on this helicarrier was referencing to sometimes.

"I'll guard you," Steve affirmed, "As long as you guard me too. From Hydra," that's the simplest answer the Captain could come up with.

And it was true, he would do his best to guard and protect her, something about the mutant pulling out that innate, visceral need to protect inside the super soldier. And for her part, Steve was sure she would do the same. Hydra had taken something from both of them, and they were after the same goal. A pretty dame like Angeline didn't deserve the things that had happened to her, and Steve blushed a little after thinking too long about just how pretty she was.

Angeline wasn't anything like Peggy, or Natasha, or really any of the women that Steve had ever interacted with. The women Steve knew, they were all classically beautiful, deadly, smart, and graceful. But to a degree, they were all also contained and reserved. Angeline was something else entirely. She was wild—there was a chaotic energy around her, that didn't surround Peggy or Natasha (the only two women the Captain spent prolonged periods of time with). While Natasha was stern and restrained, Peggy had straddled the line between warm and professional. Angeline seemed uninhibited and nonchalant, cold sometimes and without pity. They weren't the most flattering words, but Steve still thought Angeline was a strong and good person. One didn't have to be nice to be kind, nor did they have to be kind to be good.

"I see," Angeline seemed to mull the concept over in her head, "I think I will be able to abide by it. I agree with your line of thought Steve Rogers, it is better to have an ally that is capable,"

Steve realized belatedly that Angeline had heard his thoughts and blushed severely in response. To be fair on her part, Angeline wasn't purposefully seeking to read Steve's thoughts. Unfortunately, the Captain had the habit to project his thoughts rather loudly in to his.

Perhaps, Angeline pondered, she would have to teach him not to do that.


	5. Chapter 5

The move to the Avenger's Tower in New York came with quite a few stipulations. Director Fury, and most of the Avengers, still didn't completely trust Angeline. The only ones who did were perhaps Thor and Steve, which didn't exactly make a full consensus. However, Tony wasn't all that reluctant to have the mutant in his tower, mostly excited to see what kind of tests that he and Banner could run on her.

It turned out that at least getting one blood and spinal sample was part of the deal of being able to stay, relatively on her own, in New York. The two scientists were not allowed to take more than that, and it was Dr. Banner's job to give Angeline the dampening agent everyday in the form of injections. Besides that, Angeline was supposed to report to the SHIELD HQ once a week, and was not allowed to leave the premises on her own, ever. The mutant had railed internally at these conditions, but knew that she had to cooperate or her chances of finding James and Victor would dwindle.

Of course she could go off on her own. But the mutant didn't even know where to start. And especially with two organizations now that had the chemicals to affectively incapacitate her and put her down, Angeline was wary of making the wrong steps. Until she could get her hands on those formulas and destroy them, the mutant would have to behave.

Ultimately, the move to the Avenger's Tower wasn't hard. Mostly because Angeline didn't own anything. Tony had asked Pepper to buy a few of the necessities, but otherwise the new person living in the Tower was without any belongings or personal affects. It made Steve sad to see, especially because even though he was frozen for so long—at the very least, he still had his belongings away in storage.

Angeline didn't seem to mind. Never one to have many possessions anyway because she was always on the move prior to her capture—the mutant wasn't all that bothered by the lack of personal belongings. However, there was something that the mutant wanted back, that she was unsure if she would ever see again. But that would have to wait for later. Instead, the woman was fascinated by the new technology that was surrounding her in the Tower. When she first met Jarvis, Angeline was in the kitchen and had friend almost every electronic that was in sight because of shock.

When he had found out, Tony was incredibly amused by the overreaction. Teasing Angeline about it incessantly whenever he saw her. The other Avengers were not nearly as amused, as all the kitchen appliances were broken and they had to wait for the arrival of a new coffee machine before any of them could get their morning fix. Tony had deemed everything in the kitchen broken beyond repair—which had sent him into another fit of laughter and had caused him to slowly warm to the mutant, who would go to him for explanations on how to run everything.

For the most part, Angeline kept to herself. Sometimes she would fly about the various floors of the Tower, exploring what each room held. Other times, she would sit on the rail of the balconies of each room and extend her mind as far as she could in order to see if she could sense James or Victor. So far that venture had failed, after being held captive for so long, Angeline's powers didn't extend as far as it used to and she was only capable of a 10-mile radius before she started to bleed from her nose. It was okay, considering the fact that she was on a dampening agent and out of practice, but Angeline was frustrated both at herself and at SHIELD for not updating her about any of their progress.

The only times that Angeline truly went out and about was when Steve was back from a mission. The super soldier had made it his mission to show Angeline everything there was about New York and Brooklyn, his home. They would often be tailed by one or two other teams of SHIELD agents, but SHIELD usually let them have some sort of privacy, only there to subdue her or an enemy should anything go wrong. Sometimes Director Fury would call her into Headquarters in order to interrogate a brand new batch of SHIELD agents, or identify Hydra from old ones. Weeks passed like this, and before long, Summer was in full swing and Angeline was getting impatient to hear about Victor and James again.

"I got beat up in that alleyway too," Steve pointed out the place with his finger, a dark alley behind a Laundromat. The Captain had taken it upon himself to show Angeline all of Brooklyn, including the parts that no one really knew about, the ones that pertained to him and his childhood.

"It is a wonder that you ever survived past adolescence, given the amount of alley ways that you have been 'beaten up' in," the quotes around the words that Angeline put made Steve laugh. She had taken to doing that, around all the phrases she wasn't familiar with and had learned from him.

Steve shrugged, still chuckling slightly, "Yeah well, I never did like bullies,"

"So you've said," Angeline hummed, "Curious that you would want to spend your time with me then, considering you know that I'm the biggest bully of them all,"

Rolling his eyes at the joke, Steve knew that Angeline was thinking of James and Victor again. Angeline had explained a little bit to the him about who they were—her family that she had met in the woods of Canada a few years prior to the Revolutionary War and lost by the time WWI had ended—the time stamps that Steve had decided would mark them because war dates were something he knew, "Oh please, you terrorized two boys you considered family. That's like a right of passage for older sisters—Rebecca did that to Bucky the whole entire time we were growing up,"

Angeline didn't reply, lost in her thoughts once again. Steve frowned, knowing that Angeline was still thinking of the past and wanting her to be present in the future, with him, now.

"Do you want to get some pizza? There's this great place in the Bronx that Clint said we should try," Steve offered, watching as Angeline listlessly floated in front of him—tilting her head every now and then to look around at her surroundings. Steve had noticed that Angeline didn't ever let her feet fully touch the ground but the space between it and her feet was miniscule, you wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it. "All we have to do is take the metro, couple stops and we're there,"

"The Bronx…that is one of the boroughs, yes?" a look of puzzlement passes over Angeline's face as she tries to remember where the place is on the map of New York Steve had showed her when he initially proposed that they explore the city together.

"Yeah," Steve nodded excitedly in response, "I know we had pizza a few nights ago, but this place is supposed to be really great,"

Angeline shrugged, turning back to face Steve, "I have no objections—shall we depart now?"

"Yeah, just follow me," Steve grabbed Angeline's hand, startling the mutant, and began pulling her toward the metro station.

Stunned, the mutant hardly moved, allowing Steve to drag her through the air and toward their intended destination. It had been a long time since Angeline had let someone hold her hand. The shock of it kept her from moving, from ripping her hand out of Steve's hand and stopping them in the middle of the sidewalk.

The two quickly made their way to the metro, where Steve didn't seem to realize he was still holding Angeline's hand as the super soldier had yet to let go. Angeline actually let herself hold Steve's hands tighter as they approached the station and later the train, still not completely familiar or okay with this mode of transportation. The shifts and developments that had happened over the 90 years always managed to discombobulate her.

As the train jolted alive, Angeline slowly extracted her hand from Steve's who didn't realize that he was still holding Angeline's hand until she did so. Blushing furiously, Steve raised that same hand and rubbed the back of his neck, smiling shyly down at the mutant next to him.

"When will you be leaving next?" Angeline asked amicably, eyes scanning the train car—noticing the two SHIELD agents that usually tailed them in the next car over, trying to look inconspicuous and not let her and Steve become aware that they were watching through the car windows.

"Not for a couple more days," Steve whispered, not wanting anyone to overhear them, "Fury says he has a lead, wants the Delta team to head to Switzerland,"

Cocking her head to the side, Angeline looked up at Steve curiously, "A lead?" Not wanting to pry into Steve's mind and find out the information for herself, especially because the super soldier was just starting to trust her—Angeline exercised some self control and kept herself from just plowing through his mind.

"Yeah, I know, hopefully this one won't be a bust too," a dejected sigh escaped Steve's lips, "I wish he would let you come with us—we could use your help,"

Angeline nodded in agreement, having made this argument to Fury several times—however, the Director of SHIELD had denied it each time and Angeline had allowed herself to acquiesce to the decision. "I do as well; however, the work Fury has me conducting is just as important. Furthermore, I am not currently at top performance or health for a potentially fatal situation,"

"Are you feeling okay? Did they up the dosage on you again?" Steve cast a worried glance down at Angeline, not liking the thought that the mutant was feeling sick and powerless because of the actions of SHIELD. He knew why the Director was being cautious but at the same time, Steve found himself trusting Angeline and didn't want her to feel worst than she had to just to appease Nick and the rest of SHIELD.

"They did—my tolerance levels are rather high and Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho have had to accommodate for it multiple times already. It is fine, I am still within a reasonable level of capacity, enough at least for me to operate at a relatively functional level," Angeline informed Steve of her status, having no qualms in letting the super soldier know of how she was doing medically at least.

Steve listened to Angeline's words skeptically, the super soldier had learned that the mutant had the tendency to downplay anything that was wrong with her, and he wanted to know just how much the dampening serum was actually affecting her. "Angeline, how much is it actually affecting you? Can you even fly still? Or are you grounded?"

Looking up into Steve's eyes, Angeline was about to answer when the metro train jolted to a stop, sending her straight into his chest. Steve caught Angeline in his arms, holding her steady against him as she regained her footing. She felt soft, is the first thing that Steve observed. It surprised him a little, as he had never really been this close to Angeline except that day he carried her to the jet. She was soft and warm, really warm, far warmer than she was the day he met her. And for some reason, Steve found himself reluctant to let her go.

Taking a moment to gather herself, Angeline smiled up in thanks before extracting herself from Steve's arms. "It seems we're out our stop,"

It took a few moments for Steve to register her words, but when he did, he finally awkwardly released his grasp from Angeline. "Oh, yeah. Let's go then,"

…

"Fifteen,"

Maria Hill looked up from her Stark Pad to meet the gaze of Director Fury, who looked particularly aggravated, "Sir?"

Fury waited another moment, turning away to stare out the window of his office in the NY SHIELD Headquarters, "Fifteen agents that Angeline Stuart has identified as part of Hydra. Fifteen agents who have been working for us for years,"

"That's quite a number, Director," Maria acknowledged, not entirely pleased with what she was hearing.

"How could we have missed this?" Fury asked rhetorically, "And if there are fifteen of them, there are bound to be more. And not just regular agents either,"

"What exactly are you implying, Sir?" Mariah had an inkling of where the Director was going with this but she wasn't entirely comfortable with the thought. Once that can of worms was opened, there was no going back.

"We need to have her start screening people in positions of power. In and out of SHIELD, even amongst our government. I need to inform the Council. We need to do it quickly. We can't let an infiltration like this stand," there was a passion in Fury's voice that under normal circumstances would broker no argument.

But Maria wasn't entirely comfortable with the plan. If they acted to hastily, if they revealed their asset, Hydra would get word and they would either pull their people out, never to be seen from again, or they would act. "Sir, are you sure such a move is a smart idea right now? Shouldn't we work as far under the radar as possible?"

Fury shook his head in the negative. Usually, the Director would have agreed with Agent Hill, would have generally been operating like that already. But circumstances were different now, "Hydra has to already know that we have her in our grasp. We've been taking those agents and locking them up which means they haven't been able to report back. The time to act incognito has come and gone,"

Maria saw what the Director was saying, and already her mind was whirring with actions that needed to be done so that they were as successful as possible. "We'll need to act quickly then, before Hydra can react. If they already know that we have Angeline and are using her, either they'll try to steal her back or neutralize her as soon as possible,"

"They'll more thank likely try to take her back until they decide the risk is too much. We need to put her on lockdown as soon as possible. No one outside the Avengers and a select team of SHIELD agents are currently aware that she is even in the Tower. Let's keep it that way," Fury ordered, trying to think of a way that he could inform the Council of what was going on without tipping Hydra off.

At this point, Fury wasn't even sure if everyone on the Council was trustworthy either. What Angeline Stuart had brought to all their attentions was that no one and no where was safe. Hydra had its reaches into everything, even SHIELD, which meant they had to operate outside of it. Or at the very least, they had to be extremely careful about who they revealed information to now, even more so than usual. Sitwell was a Level Seven agent; he was meant to be one of the most trustworthy of the bunch. But even he had ended double crossing them.

"I'll send in orders for Angeline Stuart to be put on lockdown until further notice. She won't be leaving the upper level floors of the Avengers Tower for the foreseeable future," Maria was typing on her Stark Pad now, sending out the orders to the Avengers Team and the SHIELD team that was currently watching over them in New York. All the men and women on that team had been pre-screened by Angeline and thus considered "clean."

"Thank you Agent Hill, and set up a meeting for me with the Avengers. I'll have to speak with them about any future actions concerning Ms. Stuart and Hydra," Nick ordered, turning back toward Maria. "We'll need her assimiliated now, into the team as soon as possible if we want to start working against Hydra,"

"Sir? Does that mean you want to her to be part of the Avenger's Initiative?"

"It's not about what I want Agent Hill, it's about what the world needs,"

…

Bruce slid a new plate into the microscope, before refocusing it so that he could examine the blood sample. Angeline had let the doctor extract some blood for her, as per her agreement with SHIELD. However, there were also a stipulation on her part that immediately after the tests that they burn the blood and the results, so that nothing could get into the hands of Hydra. Bruce agreed without hesitation, knowing that his blood was something he wanted safeguarded as well, scared that any organization would try to replicate the results that had ended up creating the monster that would be knows as the Hulk. Fury took some convincing but eventually the Director saw there way.

The doctor was very interested to get a better look at a person born with the X-Gene, and one so powerful at that. Bruce Banner had met very few mutants over the course of his life and most of them were wary of letting anyone take a sample of their blood. Angeline didn't seem overtly worried but the general distrust and paranoia was still very much there, given the fact that she wouldn't let anyone but him handle the blood and spinal samples.

"Find anything?" Bruce turns to see Tony walking into the lab that was built into his floor of the many apartments built for the Avengers in the Tower.

"Take a look at this," backing away from the microscope, Bruce let Tony come over so that he could see the cells too.

"Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Tony asks, eyes widening while observing the blood that was under the microscope.

"Yeah, you are. I've been sampling all the various blood, spinal, and cell samples. The rate of regeneration, it's unprecedented," Bruce confirmed, standing back and crossing his arms across his chest.

"More so than the Captain?" Tony asks, taking the microscope and turning the dial to zoom in more closely upon the sample.

Bruce nods his head in confirmation, "Steve's blood regenerates, sure, but he still ages—even if its very slowly. Even with the speed of his regeneration, it doesn't seem to stop some of the older cells from aging and dying. Angeline on the hand, her cells look as new as the day she was born. They're all rapidly regenerating, and with the added UV radiation exposure, the cells that were aging became young once again,"

( **A/N: listen, I only took AP Biology in high school, my knowledge of biology is very minimal so I'm just going off what I learned from then and what I still remember now, so please be easy on me with the judgement)**

"This is nuts, the size of that mitochondria—I don't think your average human is supposed to have mitochondria that big, are they?" Tony questions, stepping away from the microscope as well in order to meet Bruce in the eye.

Bruce shakes his head, "No, it's supposed to be a quarter of the size. But it also explains the UV absorption. Instead of chloroplasts, like a plant, her mitochondria have evolved—becoming bigger, more efficient…"

"And capable of absorbing solar power," Tony finishes before whistling lowly, "Impressive. And you've confirmed the presence of the X-Gene from her spinal/DNA samples?"

Bruce nods before walking over to a separate table and picking up a file, "Here are the results,"

Tony picks up the file and starts to flip through it, his eyes roaming from page to page.

"It's not just the typical X-Gene though, the computer picked up 10 other anomalies in her DNA that I think probably contributed to the extent of which her powers range and the total divergence of her cells from normal, human cells,"

"So what is she like a super mutant?" raising an eyebrow, the billionaire sets the file down. "You think Thor was right and she could really be a half-god?"

"Given the fact that there isn't much data on mutant DNA except for the presence of the X-Gene, we can only assume that either Angeline is an anomaly or the X-Gene causes other anomalies to appear in the DNA of mutants in general. But Thor's conjecture shouldn't be outright dismissed now," Bruce explained.

"Maybe we should ask Boy Thunder for his samples too then. We'll need a side by side comparison," Tony suggested, eyes trained on the results before him.

"Maybe, Thor would probably be much more open to the idea that Angeline was,"

"She's more powerful than any other mutant we've seen and encountered, so basically she's like a super mutant—think she's always been like this?" Tony wondered, interesting to know more about the history of the woman that was currently living in the Tower with them.

"I don't know," shaking his head and sighing, Bruce picks up the file, "Looking at her DNA, it's like if you take the X-Gene and put in on steroids but not normal steroids, like Erskine's Super Soldier Serums steroids,"

"That's probably why Hydra wanted her—to try and use her to recreate the Super Soldier Serum since they couldn't get their hands on Steve," Tony deduced, a frown settling upon his face, "Which means she's a target,"

Bruce eyes widened, "You think they'll come after her? Here? Now? She's basically recovered, you've seen what she could do—would Hydra be that stupid to come after someone that power and that angry at them? And, she's with us. They would never outright attack the Avengers and SHIELD,"

"I don't know," Tony answered, "But no one ever knows with Hydra, that's the thing. Especially given the fact that our little mutant basically revealed that SHIELD is crawling with double agents we don't know what Hydra is capable of anymore,"

"Should we report this to Fury?" Bruce asks, placing the file back in his cabinet before locking it shut.

Tony's eyes followed him and a troubled look crossed his face, "No, not yet, if we tell him now he'll get his own little ideas beyond what we've already done to Angeline. I'm surprised he wasn't itching to get his own scientists to test on her and let you do it, or have her imprisoned in the helicarrier with him forever,"

"Fury isn't Hydra, he's better than that," Bruce countered, always trying to make Tony see the other side of humanity, the less cynical side that the genius has taken to being on recently.

"Yes, but he's also the one who has us drug her every day to keep her subdued. Sounds a bit like what Hydra did doesn't it?"

A grave look settled across Bruce face, "Two different circumstances Tony,"

The billionaire nodded to what Bruce was saying but didn't entirely agree with the scientist, sometimes he couldn't tell the justification of what Hydra was doing and what SHIELD was doing. Oh yeah, SHIELD's M.O. was definitely the safety of the world, and putting restraints on people who otherwise were lawless was important (legally, at least) —but to take away a mutant's powers, to basically strip them from her, something that she was born with? Tony couldn't find himself agreeing with that. Yes, Angeline could be dangerous, as she had proven. And he didn't entirely trust her. But this was also breeching on some basic human rights, which the billionaire was very much against.

…

 _Years ago…._

 _Angeline readjusted the pack so that it would nestle more comfortably on her back. She had been walking for days, thinking that flying would make her much too conspicuous. After having stepped off the ship in the Americas, Angeline had quickly begun making her way North and into the forest. So far, she had encountered very little people and a plethora of animals._

 _Food was plenty but snow was starting to fall and Angeline just knew she would have to find a town soon or else suffer through the cold in the woods._

 _Walking along a stream, several twigs snapped causing Angeline to still and looking around her quickly. The mutant didn't spy any large animals—as she had run into a few bears once and had taken flight rather quickly in order to get away._

 _"_ _This way runt—I hear water," came a gruff voice from a little further into the trees._

 _Angeline tensed, and fled further into the forest, hiding behind a few trees—glancing through every now and then in order to catch a glimpse._

 _Two boys—one older than the other, both dark haired and rather gruff looking, made their way to the water and fell to their knees. Both started drinking from the stream rather eagerly. Angeline peered around a little more to get a better look._

 _Angeline rustled around the edge of their minds, in order to try to see if the boys would prove to be hostile or not. What she saw, wasn't all that alarming. Just two boys, orphans really, traveling through the wilderness of…Canada? Is that what this place was called, Angeline wondered._

 _The wind started blowing a little, causing both boys to look up and sniff. Immediately alerted by the scent in the air—both boys looked around until their eyes locked onto the tree that Angeline was standing behind._

 _"_ _Who's there!" the younger boy called, baring his teeth and making to move his way forward—before being stopped by a hand on the shoulder by the older boy._

 _"_ _We won't hurt you—just come out and let us have a look see," the older boy announced, his voice gravelly._

 _"_ _We won't Victor?" the younger boy whispered as to what Angeline identified as now Victor._

 _"_ _No, we won't James," Victor looked sternly down at James._

 _Now identified, Angeline could tell that Victor was certainly older than her. At least 17 or 18, while James was closer to her age—maybe 15 at most._

 _Stepping out cautiously from the tree, Angeline made her way toward the two boys._

 _"_ _Hello," waving a hand cautiously Angeline nervously tucked her hair behind her ear. They were like her, different. Angeline wondered how that wasn't the first thing she sensed from poking around in their heads and sensing their auras. But it was better to act submissive now, in case they were the aggressive type so that they wouldn't think of her as dangerous and try to do her harm._

 _"_ _It's just a girl Victor," putting his own pack down, James jumped over the stream and made his way toward Angeline._

 _"_ _Hi, are you lost?" Angeline smiled slightly, the boy was kind—Angeline could tell that. Not as wild as his older brother (from what she could gleam from both their auras after she gave a more thorough look) but still rather…feral._

 _"_ _I'm just trying to find a town to stay in…before winter fully arrives," Angeline's European lilt manages to surprise both brothers a little. Her voice was melodic and clear, ringing pleasantly throughout the quiet forest._

 _"_ _What's your name," Victor approaches the two, his stance rather tense, his voice gruff, and his eyes rather distrustful._

 _"_ _Angeline—what's yours?" the mutant answered rather pleasantly, although she already knew both their names. Niceties had to be observed after all._

 _"_ _I'm James Howlett," the younger boy smiled pleasantly, bowing slightly—his eyes meeting Angeline's directly._

 _"_ _Victor. Victor Creed. What's a girl like you doing all by herself then? Shouldn't you be traveling with your family?" Victor narrowed his eyes in suspicion._

 _Angeline shook her head, "They died awhile ago,"_

 _"_ _So you're on your own then? Like us?" James eyes were warm and understanding, causing Angeline to smile slightly and nod._

 _"_ _Well we can show you the way…" James was cut off at the sound of an even larger snapping sound. More wood was breaking and all three children (teenagers) tensed and turned toward the sound._

 _Heading toward them was a hulking mass of fur, that Victor realized before the other two was a grizzly bear. The three of them, standing by the stream, were quickly noticed by the bear that stood on its hind legs and observed the three people in front of it._

 _No one moved and the grizzly bear seemed only to stare at them. Just when Angeline thought the bear would settle and turn around, the great thing roared and landing on its legs and started making its way toward them._

 _Victor pushed Angeline, "Run!"_

 _Angeline stumbled a bit and watched as claws erupted from James's hands and Victor's nails and teeth sharpened. The two brothers launched themselves at the bear, in order to try and give Angeline time to make a get away._

 _James stabbed the bear, causing it to roar louder and swing its head at the boy—knocking him down. Victor grabbed onto the back of the bear's neck and tried biting in but the hide was too thick for his teeth to break into. So instead, Victor tried slashing the bear with his claws. Each scratch, however, just made the grizzly more and more mad. Standing once again, the bear moved and slammed its back into the trunk, causing Victor to release it._

 _The grizzly made its way toward the two boys, intent on getting to them. Victor and James both bared their teeth, prepared to fight back. Just as the bear stepped up to them, its body went flying to the side and into another tree. Behind where the grizzly used to stand, the two brothers watched as Angeline's eyes glowed gold and her right hand was held up and in a glowing gold fist._

 _The bear shook itself and tried to make its way back, but with a movement from Angeline, it was once again struck through several trees-further and further away from the three of them. It's pained cries resounding throughout the forest. When the pained cries faded into whines, Angeline stopped glowing and made her way toward the boys._

 _"_ _Are you okay?" Angeline was concerned about the boys and was hoping that because they were in shock it wouldn't register for them to be fearful of her just yet._

 _"_ _You've got powers" "You're dangerous" James and Victor said at the same time._

 _"_ _Like us," baring his teeth into a vicious grin, Victor stood up and met Angeline toe to toe._

 _"_ _Like you," Angeline repeated back, causing the brothers to look at each other and smile._

 _"_ _How long you've been around? Your scent is real mature but you can't be older than me," Victor pronounced, his nose wrinkling at the observation._

 _Angeline shrugged, "Part of my charm,"_

 _"_ _Thanks for the help," James commented, wanting to be involved in the conversation as well._

 _Meeting his brother's eyes, James knew that Victor was thinking the same thing as him._

 _"_ _Why don't you travel with James and I? The three of us, we can keep each other safe—we obviously owe you for keeping that deranged grizzly away,"_

 _Angeline looked between the two boys, Victor who was grinning at her in a rather menacing, feral way and James, who looked at her eagerly and blushed slightly when they met eyes. Angeline blushed slightly as well, already rather taken with James—his aura attracted her towards him, made her want to gravitate towards him and stay latched to his side._

 _"_ _Alright, but just letting you know—I don't cook,"_

 _The boys wolfishly laughed in response._

Angeline woke up gasping. Tears trickling down her face, a deep pain in her chest where her heart was.

There was only one prevailing feeling that took over her mind. She needed to find them.

…

"What do you mean she's met with Fury?" the extremely angry Alexander Pierce yelled, causing Agent Rumlow to flinch.

The two Hydra agents were currently standing in Pierce's office, Rumlow having taken the first plane to Los Angeles the moment he had seen the patient walk into SHIELD headquarters in New York.

"I saw her going into the New York Headquarters," Agent Rumlow confirmed, his face returning to the usual passive mask.

"And you're just telling me this now? How long has she been there?" Pierce's face was becoming red with anger at being kept out of the loop.

Fury had said nothing about this, despite the fact that Pierce was basically his second in command. The SHIELD director had been very silent recently, calling meetings and taking phone calls that no one had been privy to know the information about. Pierce reprimanded himself internally, knowing he should have suspected something was going on. But the man had been keeping hold of the Los Angeles headquarters and thus unable to oversee the day to day operations of New York.

"According to my sources, weeks. Do you think she told Fury about us?" Rumlow asks, his face contorting in worry.

Rolling his eyes, Pierce smacked Rumlow in the back of the head, "Do you think we would be here right now, standing and alive, if she had told Fury about who we actually work for?"

Rumlow rubbed the back of his head, "No, sorry, I was just voicing my concerns,"

"We'll have to see where they're keeping her," Pierce mumbled to himself, but loud enough for Rumlow to hear, "The previous doctor was so very close to a solution,"

"Unfortunate that he died then," Brock quipped, earning him another glare from his boss. "Do you think she would bet at the Tower?"

"We'll have to find another one. I need you to scout the best geneticists in the country Agent Rumlow—and this time make sure they don't die," Pierce ordered, organizing the files on his desks. "And I doubt Fury would keep her somewhere as obvious as the Avenger's Tower,"

"The Asset has bene trying to locate her, but is still in South America. That's probably where SHIELD had picked her up—which is why he's at a dead end. Should I let him know to start his search in New York now instead?" Rumlow asks, getting ready to take his leave, and turning toward the door in order to fulfill his orders.

"Yes," Pierce replies quickly, "If there's anyone that can find her it's him. Now that he knows where to look, instead of just investigating the bases that she had crumbled,"

"And what about Fury?"

"I'll deal with Fury, see what he knows. A few of our agents have failed to report back, and after what you just told me, that probably means she has started screening agents for him,"

"But we're still in the clear?"

Pierce nods grimly, "For now. I don't know how long that's going to last. Which is why we need the Asset to get to her know and take her back for us, before any more information is revealed that can compromise us all,"

Rumlow nods before quickly leaving the room, the door slamming shut behind him, the SHIELD crest nailed on the wall of Pierce's office shaking because of the force.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hi everyone! So sorry for the long wait! I've been writing and re-writing this chapter so many times that I've finally just given up and want to put it out there in the world. You see, my main problem is, how to develop Angeline and Steve's relationship further and bring Logan and Victor into the plotline seamlessly and it all seems a jumbled mess right now and I'm severely frustrated. If anyone has any good ideas please let me know. As always, I don't own anything except Angeline. And also as always, please R &R to tell me what you think, please. **

**Best,**

 **M**

Angeline didn't realize where she was going until she blinked and found herself standing in the middle of the kitchen. The room was empty, dirty plates stacked in the sink from dinner, no one having cleaned them up yet.

Angeline rummaged through the refrigerator and pulled out a plate of leftovers to eat. Still uncomfortable with the microwave, the mutant resolved to eat her plate cold and was set to return to her room for the night. When she flew into what was basically a brick wall. Gasping, Angeline watched as food flung all over the place but mostly on the person that had run into her.

"What's the hurry sweet cheeks?" using his metal hand, Tony wiped the remains of what was dinner off his Iron Man suit.

"Tony Stark—shouldn't you be down in the…" Angeline took a moment to search the word, and uncharacteristically Tony waited for her to finish her thought instead of interrupting, "garage?"

"Bingo!" The Iron Man exclaimed excitedly, and it was true the billionaire usually was in the garage but he was surprised to hear that Angeline had taken note of it, "It's late, people are usually sleeping right now but yeah, I do spend a considerable amount of time in the garage. You're observant, aren't you?"

Angeline gave Tony a look that clearly read, _No, really?_

"Well where are you off to now Kara-El?" Tony disengaged from his Iron Man suit and stepped out of it, clad in his black AC/DC shirt and ripped jeans the middle-aged man looked like he was trying to relive his early 20s.

Rolling her eyes, Angeline floated back to the kitchen counter in order to take her meal there instead, "I have watched Superman and Justice League now. And while I find the comparison flattering, I am no Kryptonian," casting a faux-menacing glare at Tony Angeline slowly took a bit of her food before speaking, "And I have no Kryptonite for anyone to use,"

"That's supposed to be like…metaphorical," Tony waved his hand through the air as if to indicate the metaphorical-ness, "Everyone has a weakness, and I'm sure you're no different sweetheart, no matter how you try to play the tough girl act,"

Angeline lifted an eyebrow, unflinchingly meeting Tony's gaze, "Tough girl act is it? Interesting coming from the man who has yet to fully address the…what is it called…PTSD?" at the word, Tony's face shuttered, "The tough boy act must be difficult if you're inner mind is constantly in turmoil isn't it?"

She hadn't meant to, attack him, Tony Stark that is. Unfortunately, Angeline found herself completely on edge lately and this round, it seemed Tony Stark was her target of choice. And boy did she know how to hit right where it hurt, right where one of the man's deepest insecurity lay.

The Iron Man didn't react, clearly not pleased, but Tony being Tony was decidedly undeterred (or at least he presented himself to be) and quickly brought a smile back to his face and spreading his arms wide, "Well what can I say? You really don't pull punches do you Ms. Stuart,"

Allowing a small smirk to tug at the corner of her lips, despite feeling the open annoyance in Tony's aura the mutant knew he wasn't all that offended and had only prompted this conversation to get to know her—even though it was a rather less tactical way of doing it, "It seems every one of you Avengers have been trying to corner me lately. I have been here for weeks now, tell me, what has prompted this sudden change from avoidance to active questioning?"

It was true, unbeknownst to Angeline, Fury had given the order. They were to attempt to assimilate her into the Avenger's Initiative. Almost everyone was on board, except for Natasha and Tony, who both seemed to be particularly distrustful of the mutant.

Both of their paranoia levels were high, and so despite the other Avengers trying to corner Angeline and informing her all about the benefits and greatness of being an Avenger, Tony had steered clear while Natasha was away on a mission and thus absolved from trying to recruit the mutant.

"I wasn't avoiding you," Tony scowled, the billionaire was known to be a pretty welcoming person especially to beautiful women like Angeline.

The look of mockery and disbelief on Angeline's face told Stark that the mutant knew he was lying, at least on that account. The man had the decency to blush a bit. Really, Angeline was beautiful and slightly scary, it made Tony equal parts fascinated, frustrated, and annoyed.

However, Stark stopped the line of thought the moment it strayed that way—he had Pepper now after all, "Well, you've proved yourself to be…friendly…" Tony struggled to find the word, "Or at the very least not openly hostile and even if you don't want to admit it, you're an Avenger now—part of the family!"

"Family," the word tasted strangely in Angeline's mouth and made her grimace slightly at saying it, "I do not have any more family,"

Tony shrugged carelessly, "Neither do I, not really anyway. That's why we make our own family though isn't it?"

There was a skeptical look on Angeline's face, as if it was no one but her who truly knew how fragile the threads that bound these people were, "You did not make the Avengers Tony Stark,"

"I didn't," Tony conceded, "But the teams still family, you can't not be close to the bunch of people you saved the world with,"

"Perhaps not," Angeline acknowledged, "What is it that you do down in that garage Tony Stark?"

"Who me?" Tony shrugged innocently, "Just invent things that will save the world, you know nothing too important," the air of nonchalance was something that Angeline saw through but she did not comment.

Instead, the mutant's interest was piqued at what kind of new technology filled the garage in which Tony Stark liked to disappear to all the time, "Well, will you show me your garage? I have yet to enter there?"

The inquiry seemed to excite the inventor, who began to rapidly speak of all the gadgets he had been working on for each other Avengers. Leading Angeline toward the elevator in order to show her his workshop. Angeline for her part understood some of what the Iron Man was talking about.

However, she was unafraid to ask question and when she did, it just prompted to Tony to go on a spiel explaining what Angeline didn't understand that would result in him diverging from the story 10 different times in order to talk about something else.

The animated joy Tony got out talking about his work was overpowering. And Angeline watched the Iron Man warily, trying to see if he was going to explode from the amount of energy he had any time soon. However, she could also see the edge of anxiety circling around his aura, clearly from the trauma that he had lived through. The man didn't seem to want to rest, if only to keep awake and away from his demons longer.

"You should speak with Miss. Potts," Tony whipped around, the comment coming from Angeline out of nowhere.

"Now what do I need to speak to my Pep about?" the Iron Man was curious as to what the mutant would say, not really knowing where she was going with this conversation.

Angeline watched as Tony fidgeted around the work room, tinkering with different 'robots,' "I have learned, through the centuries that I have been alive that when all else fails, communication works best. The troubles you are having, if you do not speak to her about it, you will find that Pepper can be unsympathetic when she does not have all the details,"

"Oh don't tell me the teams got you on me about my working late too," Tony groaned, "And here I thought you were supposed to be a loner,"

"The team hasn't told me to do anything, nor have they voiced their concerns," Angeline rejected the idea outright. "You forget that I am a mutant, one that can sense the auras and emotions of people even when they don't want me to. Your actions hurt her, even as you try to protect her. So speak with her and tell her what you saw that day. What still haunts you at night,"

Tony watched Angeline with solemn eyes, his demeanor suddenly turning serious. Usually, the billionaire would try to joke his way out of conversations like these, but with Angeline, who had such a grave and tired air around her, he found that he couldn't.

She was right, she had lived a lot longer than all of them, her experience with this was probably vast compared to any of them, including Captain Spangles. But that didn't stop Tony from wanting to pretend that nothing was wrong sometimes.

"Awake for only a few months and suddenly you got a degree in Psychology?" Tony quipped, not entirely pleased with the way that this conversation was going. And here he was just trying to be nice and show the mutant around.

Angeline barked out laughter, startling Tony, "No. But I know humans and the way they work. If you don't want to talk about it, don't. But watch as everything around you crumbles because you didn't. It's that simple. What you are experiencing, thousands of men have experienced before when they returned from war. James and Victor were just the same the first time they fought, no matter how much either of them tried to deny it. I saw,"

Tony's interest was piqued. Usually, Angeline was so tight lipped about the two men that she was having SHIELD search for. Not even Steve, who had spent quite a bit more time with the mutant could report back much. So to hear her so casually bring them up had Tony ready to pounce on the topic.

But he didn't. Because as tactless as he could be, the pain that was on Angeline's face when she spoke of the two was real. And he had experience with that, the hurt that came with people that were long dead. At least she had hope, that maybe they were out there, however slim it may be.

"Alright cupcake, hand me the wrench and I'll think about talking to Pepper tomorrow," Tony acquiesced, not wanting to get in an argument now, when he was so tired.

Angeline wrinkled her nose in displeasure, "Cupcake?"

Tony laughed, until the wrench that he had asked for was sent flying and smacked into his stomach, sending the air out of him. Than he just glared at Angeline who was watching him laughingly.

…

She watched him for a long while, knowing that he couldn't see her. No one could, unless she wanted them to. It came with years and years of training, spending time in that Red Room…

But it certainly had been a long time since they've talked. It was always team bonding events here and there, missions that Fury would send them on that would make them both go to opposite ends of the world, and never enough time for just two people to interact.

"Dr. Banner," Natasha greeted, walking into Bruce's lab, her feet so quiet that you wouldn't have even noticed her except for the fact that she announced her arrival.

Spinning around quickly, Bruce nearly spilled the coffee in the cup that was in his hand, "Natasha!" startled slightly by the Black Widow's appearance, the Doctor was becoming increasingly frazzled as the assassin approached him.

"Working hard, Doctor?" Natasha smirked, though she felt anything besides confident. She could seduce anyone in the world but put her in front of one Bruce Banner and all of the sudden she felt like a nervous school girl again. Not, that she had ever really gotten the chance to ever be the nervous school girl.

Bruce shrugged, "Just checking up on some updates that Tony sent me,"

"And what has the illustrious Iron Man been working on?" Natasha peered around Bruce, curious and wanting to know what was going on, but polite enough to ask Bruce as oppose to break into his lab later and steal the information.

"We've just been working on decrypting the information from Loki's scepter and the Teserract—see if we could use it to make improvements on the technology that we already have," Bruce explained vaguely, turning off one of the monitors.

"Oh?" Natasha crossed her arms against her chest and stared at Bruce skeptically, "Why do I have a feeling that more is going on,"

"If there was more going on, you would already know more bout it Tash," a hot blush made its way throughout Bruce's body when he used Natasha's nickname.

The act only made the assassin grin, the use of then nickname sending a bolt of pleasure through her. "If you say so Doctor—want to catch me up on your latest?"

"I don't want to bore you," Bruce rubbed the back of his head in chagrin, "I'm sure you've got other things to work on,"

Natasha shook her head, her red curls swinging around her face as she did so, "No where I'd rather be Doc,"

Bruce looked at Natasha skeptically for a moment, before motioning her over. Pointing at the screen he began explaining the signals they've been receiving from the scepter, and how it could relate to the technology that they had now, improve it for their own use. Natasha listened, and made the right affirmative sounds when she needed to, her eyes trained on Bruce's face the entire time.

"Do you want to go for coffee?" the question comes out of nowhere, or at least to Bruce it does, which is why he startles and jumps a little when Natasha asks.

Turning slowly to the assassin, Bruce looks at her over his glasses and tries to suss out what it is that the Black Widow said and what it is that she actually intends. "Sorry?"

"Coffee," Natasha enunciated slowly, "Do you want to get some?"

Seeing that this was relatively harmless, the doctor felt it safe to answer, "Sure," Bruce shrugged, "We can grab a pot upstairs,"

"No," Natasha rejected, "Like at a café, do you want to go with me?"

"To get coffee at a café?" Bruce's mind was whirring but he didn't let himself think where he wanted to think just yet, "Should we invite the rest of the team?"

Frustration seemed to well within Natasha but she doesn't voice it, "I was thinking just the two of us,"

Bruce contemplated the request for a moment. For a brief second, he wasn't entirely sure that Natasha knew what she was asking. But from the rather earnest look on her face, something the doctor found completely odd and off kilter, it seemed the assassin was genuine.

"Okay," Bruce nodded slowly, wanting to see where this went but also extremely cautious of how this could go. "Coffee sounds good,"

"Good."

…

"Are you sure this is prudent, Logan?"

Logan turned from the suitcase he was packing on his bed, toward the door of his room where Charles was waiting in his wheelchair. "Something's calling me Professor, and I have to go see what it is,"

Charles Xavier shook his head, not liking the idea of Logan heading out on his own when danger was an ever present threat thanks to Magneto and his Brotherhood, "We need you here Logan, the team needs you here,"

"Look, I'll only be gone for a few weeks. Back before the semester starts—it's the middle of the summer Charles. If I don't find what I'm looking for, I'll head straight back," Logan turned back to his suitcase, throwing in different clothes and not really caring what he was putting into the pack.

"What is it you think that you will find there, Logan?" Charles wondered, not having much of an ability to look into Logan's thoughts, bar being able to project and communicate with him. He didn't know what this motivation to suddenly leave was. "Why New York?"

The feeling had concentrated, just recently. For a while there was a time when his feet had wanted to be dragged various places, in various directions. But in the past couple of weeks, the signal had been getting stronger and it had all pointed to New York, "I don't know Professor, but I got to go to find out, don't ?" zipping up his suitcase, Logan placed the bag over his shoulder and maneuvered his way around Charles. "I'll be back either way. I just need to know what this is,"

"What if it's a trap? You don't know who's on the other side of that line that's tugging you," Charles warned, annoyed with the fact that even he was unaware of what was calling to Logan. He had consulted Cerebrum, on the matter of what was in New York.

The machine had found nothing. Of course there was the usual activity from the Avengers' Tower and from the SHIELD headquarters, but that was not out of the norm. There was no new mutant activity that could signal what was going on with Logan. Which either meant that nothing was there, or something that was already was there decided it wanted the feral for some reason.

Charles sighed and wheeled after Logan, who was making his way through the mansion easily. _Jean, if you would._ Charles sent out the message, knowing it was being a little manipulative to use Jean in order to convince Logan to stay. But the Professor was worried, they had no way of knowing if this was a trap or not, and the last thing he wanted was to see Logan dead.

And just like an apparition, Jean appeared in front of the mansion's foyer, stopping Logan in his tracks.

"Where are you going, Logan?" Jean inquired, stepping toward the mutant.

Logan tensed, eyes narrowing because he knew the play that the Professor had just made and he didn't appreciate it, "New York," the feral answered gruffly.

Jean sighed, shaking her head, "Are you sure that's a good idea? Logan, what if Magneto is there? Or Sabertooth?"

"Then I'll deal with it," Logan shrugged, "Look, I've been waiting here for weeks, while the line that's been pulling at me? It's only been getting stronger. I need to go to New York to see what's going on,"

"Well then at least bring another team member with you," Jean reasoned, "Storm, Scott, anyone,"

Shaking his head, Logan pushed his way past Jean, starling her because the mutant had never been that rough with her before. But Logan was determined, and no one, not even Jean was going to stop him.

"Look, I can make this trip myself. I'll even check in with you Professor if that makes you feel better. But I'm going on my own and no one is going to stop me," Logan stormed out, piling his stuff into his old truck and starting up the engine.

The mutant pulled out of the driveway quickly and started to make his way toward the highway, not bothering to look back at the mansion or the inhabitants in it.

"This could be bad," Jean murmured under her breath, before turning away and heading back to what she was doing before.

Charles nodded along, but didn't say anything, his mouth set in a grim line. He hoped, that whatever it was that Logan found there, it was what he was searching for.

…

"Are you finished?" Angeline grumbled impatiently, teetering on the stool she was sitting on.

"Almost," Steve mumbled, pencil moving quickly across his sketch paper, "Stop moving. I can't work any faster if you keep moving like that,"

"You've been doing this for hours now," Angeline complained loudly, like a child whining, it was the first time Steve had seen her act so immaturely.

"Just give me a few more minutes," Steve's eyes darted between the mutant and the power he was drawing on.

Fury had given the order. Angeline was on lockdown in the tower. Any more updates would be given directly by him or Agent Hill, and only in person. Until then, she wasn't allowed outside or in any other parts of the Tower that had people besides the Avengers.

It had sent the mutant into a tizzy, making her want to slam her head against the wall. She had spent the better part of nine decades confined to one room, and now despite having more space, she was still being confined.

Steve, the moment he had returned from his mission, and learned of Angeline's predicament, had set out to cheer her up and distract her. The rest of the team had done their best, sparring and teaching her different parts of modernity that she had missed out, but no one could handle her with as much patience as Steve could. Mostly because Angeline was prone to throwing large temper tantrums when she was bored and her powers were available to her.

"Steve," Angeline called. "Steve." She waited a moment. "Steve." Still no answer. "STEVE."

Eye twitching, Steve finally looked up, "What?!"

Angeline frowned, a bored and cold look settling on her face once again, "Never mind. There's no need to be so unpleasant,"

The super soldier sighed and continued his work, trying not to be distracted by Angeline's complaints. Sometimes, the mutant's aged totally escaped her and she would throw a temper tantrum that would make any five-year-old feel proud.

Steve looked between his work and her. _She really is a beautiful dame though._ The super soldier blushed at the thought that just went through his head, hoping Angeline didn't hear. It appeared that she didn't because the mutant made no comment and wasn't even paying attention to him.

Steve went back to observing Angeline. She was sitting on a stool, the New York skyline behind her as they were in the living room. The light shined through the window, onto her body making her glow ethereally, mostly because she was absorbing the UV rays and therefore glowing anyway. It was something that the mutant could control, but refrained from doing when she knew that she was in a secure place.

Her feet were swinging back and forth and her head nodding slowly to the rhythm of the music that was playing in the room. Steve had discovered that Angeline loved music—could see the notes floating through the air due to her abilities, adding to the experience for her.

She loved music much in the same way that he loved art and so as a compromise for sketching her, Steve allowed Angeline to play all the classical music that she wanted even though it put him to sleep sometimes.

Over the past few weeks, after spending significant time with Angeline, Steve found himself developing a sort of crush on her. She was so different from the woman that he had met in the new era he found himself in. Talking to her sometimes felt like talking to someone from his time, other times it felt like she was out of this world too—but that was only because she had been around for so long.

The fact that she was still super unfamiliar with popular culture and technology made him more comfortable around her, and the loyalty and fierceness she expressed in finding her family endeared him to her.

And despite coming off cold and callous, vicious and dangerous at times, Angeline could be incredibly warm and kind if she wanted to, if she allowed herself to open up to a person in that way. Steve felt himself privileged that out of all the team members, she had decided to show that side of herself to him first.

The debate now was whether to do anything about it or not. It had become a point of contention for him and some of his other teammates.

…

 _"_ _You should ask her out," Natasha teased, the two of them on the jet toward their next mission location._

 _"_ _Natasha," Steve scolded, "Time and place,"_

 _"_ _I'm just saying. She's a beautiful woman, and one-day Fury's going to let her out of her cage. What are you going to do if some other guy snatches her up?" Natasha watched Steve's face for a reaction and was pleased to find the way that his eyes tightened and his mouth set in such a grim line at the idea._

 _"_ _She just got out of being imprisoned for decades. Don't you think Angeline deserves a break? I doubt the thing she's looking for right now is someone to date," Steve countered, not wanting to push anything with the mutant when he was also so unsure of just what exactly he was feeling._

 _"_ _A break? Sure. But the mutant isn't dead. Look, you might be the closest to her out of all of us, and the only one to for sure say what's going on in that vicious little head of hers, but that doesn't mean I can't read people. The woman has gone through worse and still lived her life. Maybe you should try to see if you want ot be part of it." The assassin waits a beat in order to see Steve's reaction._

 _But the Captain doesn't even blink, which just makes Natasha want to goad him even further. "Or, I can set you up with this other girl I know, lives in my building when I'm not at the Tower," Natasha's eyes gleamed. The assassin has only ever wanted what was best for the super soldier and she always thought that he should have moved on from Peggy ages ago, instead of trying to reinvent his time with her by dating her niece._

 _"_ _Stop," Steve groaned, "You've been trying to set me up with everyone person you know, and I didn't even know that assassins were allowed to know that many people!"_

 _Natasha shrugged, "I'm just saying. You need to live your life to Steve. Not just wait around and mope about the past,"_

 _It was cold. But Natasha had never been really warm, despite her best intentions. Close affection and warm feelings made the Black Widow severely uncomfortable. But she was also realistic, and a pragmatist, and the way that Steve was behaving was simply illogical to someone like her who only dealt with cold, hard facts._

 _"_ _Or I could set her up with another guy…you know once Fury gives the go ahead that she can start meeting other people from SHIELD," Natasha smiled coyly, watching Steve for any sort of reaction._

 _The Captain shook his head, clearly tired, "And if she says no?" there was a current of insecurity in Steve's voice, undoubtedly left over from the years that he was just a scrawny little kid from Brooklyn. Despite the transformation, the doubts and insecurities that were bred during that time stayed with him._

 _Natasha rolled her eyes, "Then she says no, and you two stay friends. You move on and find some other girl to fawn over,"_

 _"_ _I don't think it works like that Natasha," Steve shook his head, not seeing how he and Angeline could be friends if he managed to botch everything up by asking her out only for her to say no._

 _"_ _That's because you need to learn to compartmentalize," Natasha chided._

 _"_ _Who needs to learn to compartmentalize?" Clint interrupted, making his way form the front of the jet toward the two of them._

 _Strike Team Delta was on their way to yet another mission and luckily this time both the Black Widow and Hawkeyes would be accompanying the Captain and not just leaving him with SHIELD agents who either 1, fawned all over him or 2, didn't take him as seriously as he wanted them to because they thought he was relic out of time i.e. Brock, the bastard._

 _"_ _Steve. It's the one thing the serum didn't give him. He's trying to find a way to ask out Angeline," Natasha supplied easily, not having any qualms with sharing with Clint what the two were talking about._

 _Natasha and Clint were the best of friends. Closer than any other working pair of agents within SHIELD. There was very little about each other's lives that the other wasn't privy to. There was very little about other people's lives that they wouldn't gossip to each other about. Steve was their new favorite subject, especially since he was like a lost puppy most of the time._

 _"_ _Oh," Clint nodded in understanding, "Why don't you take her out? See a movie. Go dancing,"_

 _"_ _I can't dance," Steve grimaced, his memories going back to a time when he was supposed to go dancing._

 _"_ _Well then you can learn together," Clint replied—watching Steve's expressions, "Tash is right, you don't need to be stuck in the past. You can live your life. Tony and Bruce think so too. Haven't really asked Thor, since he's been busy with Jane but bet he'd agree too,"_

 _Steve huffed, "Thank you everyone, glad my life is such an open discussion amongst the team,"_

 _Natasha and Clint shared a secretive smile as the Captain turned his back to them, if only he knew…_

 _…_

Despite the numerous discussions, Steve had yet to come up with the nerve to even approach the topic with Angeline. The super soldier wasn't even sure it would be a welcome conversation to have.

Angeline had made no indication that Steve could tell that she wanted anything beyond their friendship. While she was definitely warmer to him than any of the other teammates, she didn't exactly treat him all that differently either.

"Turmoil seems to be surrounding your aura. Tell me, Steve, what are you thinking of that has caused you to be so conflicted," flinching, Steve forgot momentarily that Angeline could sense things like this—emotions. S

he wouldn't pry into his mind, unless he was projecting his thoughts she wouldn't even be able to know what he was thinking.

God he hoped he wasn't projecting his thoughts for all and sundry to hear.

"It's nothing," Steve murmured, continuing his sketching, knowing that if he didn't finish soon Angeline would lose patience and no longer be as compliant.

Not that she was very compliant to begin with.

"And yet for someone reason I find myself not believing you," Angeline's eyes were trained on Steve, watching him for any indication of a break.

For his part, the super soldier steeled himself against saying anything. Trying to hold his thoughts and emotions back like Angeline had taught him so that he wasn't projecting every goddamn thing and giving himself away.

"Thor's bringing Jane to the Tower," not exactly a subtle way to diverge the topic, but at this point Steve was desperate.

Angeline already made him nervous in general, having her complete attention so laser focused on her now when he didn't want to reveal anything made him slightly nauseous.

Angeline raised a curious eyebrow but didn't object to the turn of the conversation, "Yes, I can't wait to meet Thor's famous astro…physicist?" at Steve's nod Angeline continued, "From his description of her, you would think she could walk on water and created the Heavens,"

"Well, he's in love," Steve shrugged, chest aching just a little now—a weird pressure building in the center of it.

"Is that how you were? When you and Peggy Carter were together?" at Steve's blush, Angeline thought herself successful in finding out just why Steve seemed so in turmoil, perhaps he was missing Peggy Carter and still refusing to go see her. "Have you yet gone to see her?"

The Captain shook his head, relieved that it was Peggy that Angeline thought his mind was caught up on.

Steve had, one night as the two of them were on the roof looking up into the sky, told Angeline all about Peggy Carter. How he felt about her and the future they would have had if only he didn't crash the plane. While he had done it for the greater good, there was a part of him that still lamented all that he had lost. A really big part of him. And not just Peggy, but all the Howling Commandos and Bucky.

Angeline had listened, nodded, and took in the information. And then promptly told him that perhaps it was time to suck it up and go see Peggy and all the Commandos that were still alive. The super soldier had still not gone to do that, despite all of the mutant's badgering.

"Peggy and I never got the chance, you know that," Steve sighed, "And I'm still not ready,"

Angeline shook her head, breaking out of the frame by hopping off the stool and approaching Steve. Startled, Steve put down his sketchpad and placed it on his lap, wondering what the mutant could want.

Stopping right in front of Steve, Angeline met him eye to eye, "It is been seventy-years for you Steve, and you may have all the time in the world left but they do not. They are simply humans. You need to take some of the strength that the serum gave you, and resolve yourself to at least be able to say goodbye, a real goodbye. It's the only way you'll get any sort of closure,"

Steve rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I know. Doesn't mean it's easy,"

"You never know," a small, rare smile played at Angeline's lips, "Perhaps, this goodbye can turn into a hello,"

The gentle way in which Angeline said it, filled with warmth and compassion, made Steve smile up at the mutant. The two locked eyes and stayed staring at each other for quite a while after. Neither all that willing to look away.

…

New York. The Asset scoffed from the shadows. Of course she would be in New York along with the rest of the Avengers. How did he not notice this? After tracking her for months, following every location that she decided to destroy, how had he not noticed or been informed that she had been captured by SHIELD and brought to their headquarters?

It mildly surprised him, the emotion taking him off guard more because it had been a long time since he felt anything but anger or numbness.

However, the Asset had yet been able to approach her. It would be suicide to try and enter the Tower, will all the guards and actual Avengers crawling around at all hours of the day. At least for now.

Intel was reading that they were all about to leave on separate missions soon. He wasn't in this to make a grand showcase for Hydra. He was here to retrieve the Patient so that they could go about the work that she said they had to do.

So that he could be fixed.

Surveillance, however, was starting to get boring, especially since it seemed like she had been placed on lockdown. It was smart of the SHIELD Director, the Asset had to admit, because Hydra was actively looking for her and trying to take her back.

Not that he would actually let that happen either. Not until he got the answers that he wanted.

But, the one time he did see the Patient, she was with a man. And a flood of familiarity and memories hit the Asset so hard that he was left gasping for breath. He recognized him, the Soldier, from some time long ago. Before all this. The Asset wasn't sure who he was, or what significance he held in his life, but he knew he recognized him. The one they called Captain America.

The Asset knew he needed to tread lightly. No need to jeopardize the main mission by being caught by Captain America. No matter who he was, gathering the Patient had to come first. For now, at least.

…

Jane Foster, being a humble astrophysicist who normally anyone would describe as kind and calm, only ever reached a level of excitement and enthusiasm when talking about the stars, and sometimes Thor. Otherwise, being the stereotypical introvert that she was, large social situations drained her and big crowds made her anxious. Not that she didn't know how to talk to people and be social, it was just tiring overall.

So when Thor had said that he wanted her to meet his entire team, she was hesitant. She had seen them all, on the footages of the Battle in New York, and each one of the Avengers seemed more intimidating than the last. And no doubt they were probably protective of their Thunder God which meant that she would probably be approached with a serious degree of interrogation.

It was with those thoughts that had Jane nervously standing in the elevator of Avengers Tower, Thor's hand in hers, his thumb rubbing her hand reassuringly. For some reason, that little motion managed to calm Jane a little. But only a little.

She wanted the team to like her, they were Thor's Earth Friends and it was important to Jane that at the very least she get along with Thor's Earth Friends, if she couldn't interact with his friends in Asgard since they were so far away and unwilling to come down to Midgard unless it was of dire circumstances.

Her breath caught in her throat the moment the elevator pinged and the doors opened. Jane didn't know what she was expecting, but a bunch of superheroes dressed in their day clothes lounging about a living room and watching football while getting snacks was not one of them.

Yeah, Thor had said that it was going to be a casual affair but Jane didn't realize it was going to basically be Sunday-Night Football. She didn't even know most of them even liked football or had the time to keep up with it.

"You must be Jane," a gorgeous, tall redhead slipped into view and given the fact that Jane knew what the Black Widow looked like she could only deduce that this was not her, and was in fact the famous Pepper Potts. "Hi, I'm Pepper, welcome to the madhouse," there was a kind, humorous smile playing at Pepper's lips that made Jane relax a little.

Pepper was normal, like her. Well, normal was a relative term. They were both women in male-dominated fields, working against the system and trying their hardest to succeed. But they were also surrounded by male and female superheroes, people with unimaginable talents and powers. So, yeah, relatively normal. At the very least, she knew how crazy this situation was.

"Hi," Jane smiled shyly, shaking Pepper's hand, "It's nice to meet you,"

"Likewise," Pepper responded, releasing Jane's hand and stepping aside so that the couple could walk in, "I'm just happy that Thor finally brought you around. We've all been dying to meet the infamous Jane Foster for ages. You're all he talks about,"

Startled, Jane looks up at Thor by her side, and he's blushing a hot red but doesn't object to the statement, which sends a warm feeling through Jane and makes her give the Thunder God a dazzling smile that he returns.

Leading them into the room, Pepper introduced Jane to the group, who all responded enthusiastically to her arrival. Every Avenger got up to greet and meet her. Flustered, Jane took it all in a stride, just a little awed by the people she was meeting. Half the team comprised of medical anomalies and it made Jane's brain itch.

Despite focusing on astrophysics, Jane had done a degree in Biology and Genetics as well and wanting to crack these people open and stare at their DNA until it made sense was something that she definitely wanted to do. Not that she would. It probably wouldn't leave that great of an impression on everyone if she did.

Despite seemingly having met everyone, there was one person that Jane noticed hadn't come to greet her. A woman, sitting in the corner of the room, speaking in hushed tones with Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America.

The two seemed to be in an intense conversation, glancing in Jane's direction every now and then. It made Jane slightly self conscious, that the two were so obviously talking about her but not attempting to come and talk to her themselves.

A warm hand at her back startles Jane for a second, making her look up and meet Thor's eyes. The Thunder God's smile is kind, and his eyes are roaming all over her face. "Lady Potts would like to know if we'd like any sustenance my love,"

At the sound of Thor's voice, Jane's worries nearly melt all away and she nods, hungry after traveling all the way to New York. The couple make their way to the kitchen's island and start loading their plates up with food that had been brought out and presented buffet style. The two of them make their way over to the couch, where the rest of the team was getting into the football game.

Before Jane could take a seat though, she feels a tapping on her back. Turning around, Jane meets the eyes of the woman who had been talking to Steve. "Hi," Jane greets nervously, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear with her free hand.

The woman nods, her dark hair moving along with her, long and beautiful that makes Jane stare at it in envy. "Hello, I'm sorry to not have greeted you before. My name is Angeline Stuart,"

Jane smiles shyly, "It's nice to meet you, I'm Jane Foster,"

"I'm aware," Angeline states bluntly, although at the clearing of Steve's throat, as the super soldier is standing right behind her, Angeline readjusts herself and allows a small, tight smile to pull across her face, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Thor has talked about you constantly,"

"So I've been told," Jane laughs lightly, delighted that Thor had been talking about her to everyone yet slightly nervous around Angeline as she wasn't someone that Thor had given much detail about except that she was potentially a new member of the team, incredibly old, and particularly dangerous.

"I'm not sure how much Thor has told you about me," Angeline starts, her eyes narrowing just slightly, "But I wanted to ask, instead of extracting it from you, just to confirm. Were you in any way related to Lord Henry Foster from England, Derbyshire area to be specific? He would have been alive somewhere in the early 1900s, married to a woman named Gertrude…I'm sorry her last name is escaping me…"

Jane's eyes widen slightly in surprise and recognition at the name, "Uh, yes, he was my great-grandfather,"

For the first time in their interaction, Angeline's eyes light up and she allows her mouth to relax a little, a gentle smile crossing her face, "I'm delighted to hear that. Your great-grandfather was a good friend of mine. A brilliant scientist for the time in his own field. He would have been extremely proud of you and the accomplishments Thor has detailed to me that you have achieved,"

Jane's whole entire body flushes, a weird sort of warmth flooding through the astrophysicist. She knew, abstractly, that Angeline was old, despite her appearance. She just didn't know she knew any member of her family, but it was also gratifying to hear that someone in her family would have been proud of her.

After being estranged with her father after her mother's death, Jane didn't hear much from her only living parent, especially since he disapproved of the field that she had chosen. She told Angeline just that, warming to the woman that was in front of her.

Angeline chuckles, "Your great-grandfather was fascinated with the stars, it was a passion of his. To see that one of his family members took on his love of it as well? He would have been over the moon. None of his children pursued that path which disappointed him greatly,"

"You don't have any idea how happy it makes me to hear that," Jane enthused, feeling like she was being recognized, finally.

Especially with the developments that had happened after the Battle of New York and with the Tesseract, the scientific world was finally listening to the words she was saying. But all Jane had ever wanted was for her family to understand her, to know that that was the case, even abstractly, made her feel more secure for some odd reason.

"So you've decided to tell my Lady Jane," Thor boomed as he approached the pair, smiling delightedly and wrapping his arms around Jane's waist from behind.

"We thought she deserved to know," Steve answered for Angeline, stepping up from behind her, "That at the very least there are some family members that would have supported her,"

"Family's important. Even the dead ones," Angeline mused, glancing humorously up at Steve and placing a hand against his cheek, "Now, are you going to explain to me football or are we just going to stand here?"

The other three laughed at the comment, and the group returned ot the rest of the Avengers, who were too enraptured in the game to have had really pay attention to what was going on with the others, cheering as their favorite teams scored.

It was, all in all, a seemingly pleasant day.


End file.
